FairPoint Communications customers, regulators and investors are watching closely as the company’s 2,000 unionized workers in Northern New England enter the fourth week of their strike.
Regional members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America walked off their jobs Oct. 17 in protest of new terms of employment, which FairPoint unilaterally imposed in August after declaring an impasse in contract talks. Primary sticking points were pension plans, health care and the company’s desire to hire non-union contract workers.
On Oct. 28, FairPoint issued a statement tying slow service to alleged sabotage by strikers. In a press release, company spokeswoman Angelynne Beaudry said eight incidents of vandalism had been documented in nine days since the strike began — compared to only one such incident for the five years prior to the strike.
Union representatives categorically denied their members had taken part in vandalism, and said FairPoint’s contingency plan for the strike was insufficient to keep up with demand.
In a third-quarter earnings report on Nov. 5, FairPoint CEO Paul Sunu acknowledged that a slowdown in response times predated the strike. Documents from the Vermont Department of Public Service affirm the state’s concern about the problem, mainly with residential customers, over the past year.
In a letter dated September 4, DPS telecommunications director Jim Porter addressed the issue with FairPoint’s president of Vermont operations, Beth Fastiggi. He reminded Fastiggi of the considerable support FairPoint has enjoyed from state regulators and legislators.
He said despite the company’s action plan for service quality improvements, submitted July 15, the state had received more than 70 complaints of service interruptions and delayed repairs.
“You must understand that our efforts to assist FairPoint in the competitive market are for naught if your customers are having the service issues they currently appear to be experiencing,” Porter wrote.
Particularly troubling, Porter said in a letter dated October 17, were delayed service repairs for households with no other telephone options because FairPoint is the only land-line provider in some parts of the state.
Porter said the company is complying with requested reports to assist the state’s monitoring. If FairPoint is unable to comply with the state’s requests for any reason, the department can pursue an investigation of the problems though the Public Service Board instead, he told Fastiggi in September.
Meanwhile, the union’s charge of bad-faith negotiations wends its way through the appeal process at the National Labor Relations Board, where additional charges there remain under investigation.
On Nov. 18, the two parties are scheduled to meet with a federal mediator in Boston. It would be the first union-management meeting since August.
