Opinion ID: 2641881
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Fairpoint-Union CBA

Text: When FairPoint purchased Verizon's telecommunication systems, it also succeeded to Verizon's CBA with the Union, originally signed in 2003. Under a provision titled Limitations on Transfer of Jobs, this 2003 agreement held that: a Company may not permanently transfer more than 0.7% of [Union] represented jobs . . . to an area outside the New England States []. As interpreted in a prior grievance arbitration -- filed by the Union in an attempt to arrest Verizon's sale of the company to FairPoint -- this restriction applied only to transfers between Verizon entities, not transfers to external companies. IBEW, System Council T-6 and Verizon New England, Grievance #77-07 and 78-07 at 57-58. Throughout February 2008, the Union negotiated with FairPoint to amend and extend this 2003 agreement. In its final version, the revised CBA deleted much of the language that had been subject to the earlier arbitration, replacing it with new terms: During each contract year of the parties' current collective bargaining agreement[] (CBA), from August 3, 2008 to August 3, 2013, the Company may not permanently transfer [Union] represented jobs to any entity which is not a signatory to this agreement. Also incorporated into the revised CBA, however, was an agreement letter signed by Union and FairPoint representatives that referenced certain pre-amendment elements of the Limitation on Transfer of Jobs provision. In particular, this letter announced -5- a method for calculating the 0.7% transfer cap, despite this cap's deletion from the revised CBA. At this same time, the parties negotiated amendments to a Memorandum of Agreement specifically focused on the subcontracting of plant-technician jobs. This agreement, along with another, unmodified provision -- detailing FairPoint's ability to contract out certain other non-sales jobs -- appeared in a different section of the CBA from the Limitation on Transfer of Jobs provision.