Health care training for our Verizon members continued despite the fact that the Company chose to deny many of our members the opportunity to attend our last session on Tuesday, June 17^th. Verizon doesn’t recognize that the education of their employees concerning the costs of health insurance, in the long run, will benefit them as well.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement expires in August, and as usual, the Company is asking for concessions regarding our health care. We will not allow this Company to shift costs of our broken national health care system onto our members at Verizon. We’ve sacrificed wage increases for years in order to keep our medical benefits. Rather than attacking our benefits, we have asked this Company to join us to find a real solution to the national health care crisis.

Instead, this Company continues to be resistant and abrasive. We applaud ourselves in the attempt to keep our customers happy, but it is not the Union’s or the members’ fault that the work is backed up.

From Thursday, June 19, 2008 through Friday, June 25, 2008, the CWA Local 2336 Executive Board will out of the office in attendance to CWA’s 70^th Annual International Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In the absence of the Executive Board, the office will remain open at regular hours to deal with the concerns of our membership.

Idearc Media announced on Monday, June 16, 2008, of its intention to consolidate the work performed by directory clerical employees in Lanham, Maryland to Middleton, Massachusetts. The consolidation is effective upon the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement between CWA and Idearc Media Services which expires 11:59 p.m. on August 2, 2008.

The Company and Union will meet in the first week of July to discuss and agree on the terms of this transition.

A retail sales consultant and member of 2336, working at a Cingular Wireless store in Washington, D.C., was fired in March 2006 for fraud for discounting a number of cell phones to a business customer. The Union argued that this was not a case of fraud since the member did not try and disguise the fact that he had sold the phones.

The Arbitrator ruled that the Company failed to prove that the Grievant was guilty of fraud. Thus the grievance was sustained by the Arbitrator who directed the Company to reinstate the grievant with full seniority, benefits and back pay for over 2¼ years.

Congratulations to CWA Staff Representative Jimmy Tarlau and Local 2336 Secretary/Treasurer Brenda Savoy for a job well done.

After discussions between the Union and Catholic Charities, it has been agreed to that bargaining unit members of CWA Local 2336 who were scheduled to receive a 2.5% wage increase effective July 1, 2008, will instead receive a 3.0% increase effective on that same day.

On Monday, June 16, 2008 bargaining reconvened with the Unions presenting a comprehensive package of demands which includes substantial wage increases and improvements in benefits and working conditions. At this point, our members’ agenda is now fully on the table, but simply putting forth demands will not achieve a successful contract.

Our power at the bargaining table is the unity and commitment of our members. Every member should take every opportunity to let the Company know that you support your interests by supporting your Union.

The Union and Company bargaining committees last met on Thursday, June 12^th with the Company responding to several demands submitted by the Union in the previous session. The Union then presented a lengthy information request and the parties recessed subject to call.

Based on the discussions at this point, it has become clear that our members will need to turn up the heat through a strong mobilization effort before the Company will get serious. At each round of negotiations our members have answered the bell and this time will be no different.

We have come to these negotiations with the goal of reaching an agreement by June 30^th, but it appears that the Company did not.

The Bargaining Committee has met late into the night with this Company with questions and challenges about some of the data they have thus far provided. However, the Company’s responses continue to be meager and evasive and have yet to substantiate a financial need to shift a significant amount of the health care costs onto the backs of our hard working members.

The Company’s suggestion that, for a family, an employee who earns the average salary with Mobility today should have to pay out more than 17 percent of their annual income before the plan kicks in is insane, let alone unreasonable and immoral.

The Company has wasted enough time avoiding the questions—they need to get serious if we have any chance at reaching a tentative agreement.

The Bargaining Committee appreciates all of the support it is receiving from the membership. Bargaining has been recessed and will reconvene on June 27^th.

MESSAGE TO THE MEMBERSHIP

Verizon has come to the table with just one agenda—they’re demanding take-backs on our medical and prescription drug plans. This constitutes tens of millions of dollars in cost shifting to our members.

Our health care plans were built over the past decades by workers who took benefits instead of cash. We have bargained its costs and benefits and at times have gone on strike to improve it, and have also struck to keep it.

Health care plans are bigger dollars than money because they are tax free to our members. We have fought for years to keep our government from taxing them. It is part of our compensation package—and next to money, it is the most important part. The rate of return on our health care dollars is better than Wall Street.

At some point, every Verizon employee is going to use our medical and prescription drug plan—unless you never get sick. When it is a need for you to use the plan, you will not have to pay the hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands or even the hundreds of thousands of dollars that an illness or injury can cost. You will not have to take a loan, mortgage your home, get a second job or file for bankruptcy—which is what uninsured people have to do every day. Your medical card can save you or a family member’s life.

Over our lifetime, 1-in-2 males and 1-in-3 females will develop some form of cancer. Others will have heart problems, diabetes, strokes or be involved in automobile accidents. You will be treated by the best doctors, in the best hospitals and receive the best medications. Your health care plan may very well save your life or the life of your child or spouse as it has already saved countless lives of our members.

This round of bargaining is about the quality of life we will lead when we work for Verizon, and it’s about each and every one of us, and it’s about our family members. Every one of us has a stake in this contract, and the stakes have never been higher.

Your bargaining team will work hard to negotiate the best contract possible but the power at the table is the unity and support of our members. Show your support for yourself, your family, your co-workers and your Union by wearing red every Thursday. Stay informed. And stay together.