CWA District 7 CenturyLink/Lumen Bargaining

Lumen Limited Early Bargaining Report - #6

July 7, 2022

Dear Arthur:

Your CWA Bargaining committee is pleased to announce that we have reached a 3 year tentative agreement with Lumen effective April 2, 2023 and expires at 11:59 pm on March 28th, 2026.

Your Bargaining Committee met with Lumen representatives last week for early limited bargaining. We spent many hours reviewing data and preparing our proposals, and we knew we had a limited amount of time together to address the priorities from both sides of the table. The Company came to the table with several regressive proposals. The Company wanted to take away pensions for new hires, lift the mandatory over-time cap of 8 hours to 16 hours, remove the double-time language for mandatory overtime worked between the 49-55 hours, remove the limitations in the call-sharing agreement with the non-represented employees, proposed that the retirees forfeit their accumulative HRA rollover balance, and change the credit consultant title to the CSSA title in Mass Markets which would have been a reduction in their base wage and an impact to their pension benefits.

When Lumen representatives asked us if we were interested in going to early negotiations we decided to hear them out after having several conversations on this as a committee. We felt that going into limited early bargaining was the right thing to do. If we were to go into full blown bargaining in 2023 the entire contract is open, and what we would gain and loose is unknown. While what we could bring to the table was limited for both sides, it enabled us to focus on our top priorities while retaining many provisions and gains that we have fought for over years of negotiations and our vacation, sick time and all other economic options would remain untouched.

Through the current negotiations we were able to keep all current benefits for active employees while making improvement in wages, bring in new work, job security, and a work from home agreement for those employees who are currently working as a fully remote or hybrid employee. Included in the agreement is substantial wage increases, a ratification bonus, and we were also able to negotiate an additional paid holiday to reflect and celebrate the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr.

If the tentative agreement is ratified the new expiration of the contract will be March 29, 2026. A $1000.00 ratification bonus will paid out to all our members within 28 days of ratification.

Considering the amount of issues that could be open in full negations we feel that protecting what we have is in the best interest for our members as we will be presenting this tentative agreement to the members for a vote. The contract ratification vote will be conducted by each Local, more information forthcoming.

The CWA Bargaining Committee unanimously recommends ratification.

Here is a summary of the terms of the agreement pending ratification from the membership:

Duration of Contract: The terms of the contract will become effective April, 2, 2023 upon ratification and will remain in effect until 11:59pm MDT March 28, 2026.

Wages and other compensation: 3 year hourly base wage increase.  June 12, 2023 5%, June 10, 2024 4%, June 9, 2025 4%

$1000.00 ratification bonus paid within 28 days of ratification

New employees hired/rehired after January 1, 2024 will not be eligible to retiree health care. Retiree health care for active employees remains unchanged.

Retiree Health Care: Effective January 1, 2024 current HRA funds will not roll over to the following year. Any unused rolled over funds from previous years may be used to reimburse expense in subsequent years. Eligible expenses will be deducted first from the current year funds prior to the previous roll over funds. The Company will provide a notice to the retiree telling them the amount of roll over funds that they have available to them and how they may be used.

Increase base wage for Idaho Falls CSSA’s of $1.00 an hour at each wage progression step combined with the annual wage increases over the next three years. This will help close the gap in regards to the inequity of pay for CSSA’s who live and work in Idaho Falls to more closely match the hourly wage between what other CSSA’s are making in other areas. Currently there is a difference of approximately $3.29 an hour between Idaho Falls and the other geographic areas.

Added Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a paid Holiday, 3rd Monday in January

Work from Home Agreement: Expanded language to all remote employees to be paid if there is a mass outage and they are unable to work, improved force adjustment language and protections for Fully Remote, Hybrid, and Work from Work employees

Commitment to hire approximately 235 Network technician jobs (WS2) to perform Best in World Fiber splicing work with a commitment that there will be no layoffs for performing this work due to contracting.

Commitment to utilize bargaining unit employees to perform the National Network/Enterprise work. Titles that would be considered for performing this work are Customer Data Technicians, Central Office Technicians, Customer Service Specialist, Network Technician, CPE technician, and Broadband Technician.

Commitment to bring back 20% of the chat work from the vendor in the internet repair centers. This will bring back more work from the vendor and increase the floor of total work being performed by bargaining unit employees from 40% to 50%.  

Letter of agreement on Contracting of Work: The Company agrees to review and discuss any contracting of work prior to any contracting being implemented.

Letter of Agreement on Performance Enhancement Programs: The manager must coach during the month end review meeting and identify the reasons why the employee is not meeting their metrics and the steps the employee should take to improve their numbers.

No changes in benefits for active employees

In solidarity,

CWA District 7 CenturyLink/Lumen Bargaining Team

Lisa Avila, Assistant to the VP

Paul Castaneda, Staff Representative

Michael Salazar, Local 7037

Anthony Scorzo, Local 7777

Val Packer, Local 7621

Thomas Denos, Local 7704