New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Union for Frontier Communications workers calls state mandate unlawful
The union representing workers at Frontier Communications has filed a petition with Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to invalidate a requirement that the company use third party independent contractors to replace damaged utility poles it owns.
The Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School filed the 15-page petition Tuesday on behalf of Hamden-based Local 1298 of the Communications Workers of America arguing against PURA’s requirement Frontier use contractors to work on damaged poles. The petition contends PURA’s mandate blocks Local 1298 members from working on damaged poles in entire towns for months at a time, and instead grants third-party contractors exclusive rights to do the work.
“PURA’s requirement that Frontier use contractors for work on damaged utility poles is unlawful,” Megan Handau, a law student intern in the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School, said in a written statement. “PURA has no authority under Connecticut law to interfere with CWA Local 1298’s collective bargaining agreement and it is prohibited from adopting this mandate under long-established federal labor law. PURA’s intrusion into the collective bargaining process threatens CWA Local 1298’s ability to preserve stable, high-paying union jobs for its members.”
Handau said PURA officials did not provide an explanation for why the agency has mandated that third party contractors be used to repair or replace damaged utility poles.
Joe Cooper, a spokesman for the regulatory agency, said Thursday that “because the petition will be submitted to the Authority for review, PURA cannot offer comment at this time.”
“The Authority appreciates the participation of the Communications Workers of America Local 1298 in the underlying proceedings,” Cooper said.
Local 1298 represents about 1,400 unionized workers for Frontier in Connecticut. Its current contract with the company expires in October and Dave Weidlich Jr., president of Local 1298, said the PURA mandate undercuts the union’s ability to negotiate with the company.
“Our union fought hard to win an agreement committing Frontier to employing Local 1298 workers for traditional utility work, and to prevent Frontier from undercutting our wages, benefits, and conditions through (the use of ) third-party contractors who provide no protections for their workers,” Weidlich said. “PURA has sabotaged CWA Local 1298’s contract and our ability to preserve work for our union brothers and sisters. Local 1298 cannot negotiate with PURA, we cannot strike PURA; the law requires that PURA stay out of our bargaining process and lift its mandate that Frontier use contractors for traditional union work.”
There are about 900,000 utility poles in the state and most are owned jointly by Frontier and one of the state’s two electric distribution companies, according to Cooper.
Frontier spokeswoman Chrissy Murray said company officials had no comment on the union’s actions or PURA’s ruling that cleared the way for contractor to handle the placement of damaged utility poles.