The state’s largest teachers’ union has donated $12,200 to support striking FairPoint Communications workers, union officials said.
The board of the Vermont-NEA made the contribution in solidarity with about 2,000 workers in two unions who have been on strike for about two months. The labor dispute with Northern New England’s FairPoint landline telephone provider is over changes in benefits the company says it needs to remain competitive. The unions say they have offered concessions but have not gotten a response from management.
“What FairPoint is doing to our brothers and sisters is unconscionable and unacceptable,” Martha Allen, president of Vermont-NEA, said in a statement. “These working men and women have offered millions of dollars’ worth of concessions to FairPoint only to be met with silence and a refusal to compromise.”
Vermont-NEA represents 12,000 public education workers, a news release said.
