Why would century link want a contract so fast. I believe they are moving their pieces in place to finally say check mate.
34 replies (most recent on top)
Again that Story is pretty much corporate speak from the Union, I do not want a Corporation known for back handed tactics to have another aspect to control, they bait you with a first year reduction to get the Vote, Cannot see why people don't understand that in 20 years every CEO and Negotiations has bent us over, Stacy Goff has got this on rubber stamp mode. We send ill trained Negotiators against a professional. He knows what you want to hear and dangles a worm to be taken.
One of two things is going to happen a large percentage of the company will be sold, those left at Century3 will be forced to go to their Non Union side.
OR
After year one them make the employees responsible for a larger percent of the health care premium costs if they can.
There is a reason they are targeting it.
Waiting to see the actual written changes and details.
But early Negotiation, contract due in March but I am also hearing the increases don't kick in till June of 2020, why June and not March ?
This is a smelly situation all the way around, be smarter then this and check the details, remember these guys came in and basically did a hostile takeover and ousted most the guys that built CenturyLink, they have been screaming about funds and selling and cutting since day one. They are not doing us a favor I will bet on it, there is a Shark in these waters and we are the bait if we jump in.
No votes in yet but another BOHICA
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2019/08/20/centurylink-union-agreement.html?ana=yahoo&yptr=yahoo
What exactly is the 199 agreement?
Because 2020 is a election year and the candidates need the union vote.
So much for the bargaining committee knowing they have most of the leverage.
Another outstanding job
I know a way to save 900.00 a year to pay for my hike in health insurance. Tell the union to shove it up there a$$. No more union dues. I’m done.
Why is he a hater or what ever you said roughly $28/week wow great bargaining my money seems well spent NOT
All I ever see is how company trying to break the union now they are offering to pay most of my dues sweet thanks
Hater, Troll, upset manager
Brothers and sisters good news the 2% raise is almost enough to pay your union
As someone closing in on a nice pension bump, it’s nice to see that it wasn’t frozen. The considerably higher deductibles and maximum out of pockets will far outweigh the small healthcare premium reduction for most.
Just looked at the health care table and because were going to be in a bigger pool for health care. My single health care bill is going to go down in 2020 from 110 to 89 bucks and 8 percent pay increase over 3 years is about 5600 bucks. That's pretty good. The largest family plan drops almost 100 bucks to. That's not to bad. I'm glad were in the national company pool for health care. There rates haven't gone up in 2 years either.
2 techs came from Florida to our local. Both of them said 4 years ago they want you on the same healthcare and the same systems. The systems are happening now faster that CTL and now we want to join their healthcare? So we NO longer have the ability to negotiate healthcare?...
Seems like who is gonna wait who out. They waited. Do we? Is that something we give up and who knows what happens every year to premiums? Or do we do what a Union does and fight? Idk
2 techs came from Florida to our local. Both of them said 4 years ago they want you on the same healthcare and the same systems. The systems are happening now faster that CTL and now we want to join their healthcare? So we NO longer have the ability to negotiate healthcare?...
Seems like who is gonna wait who out. They waited. Do we? Is that something we give up and who knows what happens every year to premiums? Or do we do what a Union does and fight? Idk
There's no distinct part of the actual company called consumer really. It's just branding for essentially the same or similar product sold to SMB, Enterprise, or Government customers using the same network. With premerger companies getting ever more entangled and integrated, don't count on the local network portion getting hived off and sold as is to another company. Even if it was, the new owner is more than likely to be a vulture capital fund looking to ra, er extract even more synergies than CTL/L3. The only thing I'm sure about is Storey already has his mind made up about what's going to happen, despite his public statements.
Knowing that this upcoming contract is the only thing in the way before selling off consumer is the reason why getting a better contract from previous years should be no surprise. Our bargaining committee has most of the leverage and they know this. I’m staying optimistic only for these reasons and not because CTL is doing this from the kindness of their hearts. They have an agenda and we will soon find out after we ratify this contract very soon. Just about everyone who really listened to Jeff Storey speak at the 1st and 2nd quarter shareholder meetings should know this by now. He’s all about enterprise and wants nothing to do with copper but I’m more excited to work for a company who has common goals that align with what we do every day.
3% is the average across all industries...so a union should get more.
"2020 3% 2021 2.5% 2022 2.5% and healthcare plans will change to what national has. That is all. So basically the same thing as 2017.
This is what I’m hearing too. "
For those of you that have been here a while, those percentages are higher then we ever got a year for the last twenty years, Getting them consecutively smells fishy. we were lucky to get 1 percent a year with a 2 percent typically the high mark and no raise some years. Health care every year went up however as did cost of living, why we are sliding backwards.
They kept getting them passed by offering incentive raises to sales and other high turnover departments if you reach a time in title and were at the top end. Few ever make it there due to the stress and burn out but they had a lot of these employees in these titles which out voted the technical side.
Now were seeing some pretty decent wage incentives but no firm indication on the health care side. The company baited us last time with wages but increased health care so it was a wash, they messed with STD and a few other things people thought were minor but it has not been since they also took away our in house HR people for disability insurance and gave us Sedgewick to manage everything. If you have dealt with them I need say no more.
The devil is in the details, you may make more hourly but take home substantially less if you don't look away from the bright lights of the wage increase to see the surrounding aspects of this contract.
80% of contracts due to expire in next 12 months so why don’t all those unions work together to get under 1 contract so the employee will actually have some power.
Wait my bad that makes sense
the union will never go for that they like their scare tactics so you think they are actually needed
Yup, ive been a tech here for 20+ years and these last 6 months alot of us have had a very uneasy feeling, and then early bargaining to boot? You’re right, something seems fishy, especially coming from a company that has shown the last year to cut every cost imaginable. I suppose we will see.
Yeah something doesn’t seem quite right about this whole thing, I’ve never seen anything like this before. There’s a rat in the wood pile somewhere... weird the company would want to settle the contract months ahead of time and not try to fight through various issues?!?! Seems very very fishy... Forgive me for being skeptical, I just don’t believe their “good” intentions.
That might be where it gets tricky. If healthcare is no longer bargained for, that is a big loss “even if its better this next year” which the raise they give is hardly enough to cover the costs. But as always, people see the “raise” and are not really paying attention to what is really going on with everything else until it is too late....
Your healthcare will go up next year. Look closely to the plans. It is less than it would be on the 2017 extension but more than this year. In the long run you save about 10 bucks a paycheck next year for a family and healthcare will no longer be bargained so rates can go up and nothing we can negotiate.
Right? Something seems off here...More money and less h.c. cost? Sounds like a hell of a contract
So only smokers will see a large increase in premiums and pretty much everyone else will see their rates stay flat or go down? Because National and the rest of the company pays less unless they're a smoker or make less than $50k.
2020 3% 2021 2.5% 2022 2.5% and healthcare plans will change to what national has. That is all. So basically the same thing as 2017.
This is what I’m hearing too.
So does that mean 3% raise and 5% healthcare cost increase per year? How much are the actual healthcare figures? And any wording changes inside the contract itself?
2020 3% 2021 2.5% 2022 2.5% and healthcare plans will change to what national has. That is all. So basically the same thing as 2017.
Consultants told them get a contract asap. Nobody will buy a company on strike or with hundreds of contractors filling jobs emptied because of getting rid of union employees.
Any details on the new contract offer??
I could see a hostile takeover like when CTL took over US West. This would give the takeover company the fiber also. ATT is the only company I could see doing this and then they would have the only 14 states they haven’t taken over this far with a nationwide fiber network.
in addition to Post ID: @10C71F7Q-ttp, if they are planning to sell the consumer side of the business, the potential buyer would want to see a stable workforce and see what the cost structure is going to be. My guess is the company will sell the Legacy Qwest states as a whole or as sell them individually, Fiber is the future and copper is gone. The next company will probably look where their best buck for their money will be in regards to FTTP penetration and what markets will provide their greatest chance to succeed.
Because they are trying to sell off the residential side of the house but keep the fiber network for themselves is my guess.