Verizon wants the FCC to violate union contracts

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering changes to its pole attachment rules, including “One Touch, Make Ready” (OTMR). One Touch, Make Ready allows third parties to move, alter, or remove cable, telephone, and utility company equipment on utility poles. Verizon wants the FCC to adopt One Touch, Make Ready, even when it would violate legally binding contracts between employers and their union workers.

There are plenty of reasons to oppose OTMR: There is no accountability in cases where the contractor doesn’t do the job properly and customers lose services. Contractors don’t have the rigorous training needed to perform this dangerous work. And this work has been a subject of negotiation between union workers and their employers for decades.

CWA, AT&T, and Frontier want the FCC to make sure that any new pole attachment rules respect longstanding collective bargaining agreements that ensure skilled union workers do this work. But Verizon broke ranks, and urged the FCC to ignore these agreements and support OTMR, violating the rights of the workers who negotiated them in their labor agreements.

Links:

Verizon says OTMR pole attachment reforms should not be tied to union agreements (FierceTelecom, July 25, 2017)

Reply Comments of CWA (CWA, July 17, 2017)

Reply Comments of AT&T (AT&T, July 17, 2017)

Reply Comments of Frontier (Frontier, July 17, 2017)