Leamy, Jr. Thomas, C., 33, of Greenpost Lane, a lineman for Verizon for 11 years died Sunday, July 5, 2009 at RI Hospital.  Born in Warwick, he was a beloved son of Thomas C.  and Deborah A. (Venditto) Leamy.  Thomas enjoyed coaching baseball for Warwick American and being involved with wrestling for Warwick P.A.L.  He was the devoted father of Thomas M. Leamy; brother of Jonathan M. Leamy and Nicole M. Kane and her husband, Timothy and maternal grandson of John G. Venditto and the late Marjorie L. (Renick) Venditto; paternal grandson of the late Thomas F. and Lillian I. (Corboy) Leamy; uncle of Elizabeth, Noah, Nathaniel, and Tatianna.

 

His funeral will be held Friday at 9 am from the Thomas & Walter Quinn Funeral Home, 2435 Warwick Ave. with a Mass of Christian Burial in St. Kevin Church, Sandy Lane.  Burial will be in Quidnessett Memorial Cemetery, North Kingstown.  Visiting hours Thursday 4-8 pm.  In lieu of flowers, contributions to the Thomas C. Leamy, Jr. Memorial Fund,  c/o 215 Tiffany Avenue, Warwick, RI, 02889 will be appreciated.

IBEW Local 2323 will be drawing its annual Scholarship in memory of Yvonne Ferreira at the Executive Board meeting on June 25th.

PRESIDENT                          Steve Murphy

VICE PRESIDENT                 Craig Duffy

RECORDING SECRETARY    Ellen Dilorenzo

BUSINESS MANAGER          Bill McGowan

TREASURER                         Theresa Cassidy

EXECUTIVE BOARD 

NORTHERN UNIT                   Patrick Leary

ISLAND UNIT                        Steven Arcello

SOUTHERN UNIT                  Tom Plunkett

METRO UNIT                         Ray Silvestri

PLANT AT LARGE                  Brian Brietzke

SALES                                    Phyllis Moniz

AVAYA                                   Dave Noran

Verizon Sale Raises Concerns for Workers, Rural Communities

 

Washington, D.C. -- The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America have serious concerns about the pending sale of Verizon Communications landlines to Frontier Communications Corp. The unions will continue to review the proposed deal. 

The sale would move 4.8 million lines serving residential and business customers in 14 states to Frontier. The deal calls for Frontier to take on $3.3 billion in debt; Verizon gets that amount in debt relief. That leaves Frontier saddled with debt that will lessen the potential amount available for investment in high speed broadband deployment.

Similar tax-free transactions by Verizon, especially those involving the Reverse Morris Trust tax provisions, haven't worked out so well, especially for consumers in New England now served by FairPoint Communications.

The two unions are reviewing the deal and will bring concerns to management at both Verizon and Frontier. They will work together to support the interests of consumers, workers and retirees. CWA represents about 3,900 workers affected by the sale and the IBEW represents about 4,200.

This morning Verizon issued the following news release:

In a move that will further accelerate the company’s focus on wireless, broadband and global IP, Verizon Communications Inc. today announced plans to divest its local wireline operations serving residential and small-business customers in predominantly rural areas in 14 states and that these operations will be acquired by Frontier Communications.

The transaction is expected to strengthen Frontier’s position as a premier rural communications provider and return a total value of $8.6 billion to Verizon and its shareholders, as Verizon continues to transform its growth profile and asset base around the fastest-growing parts of its business: wireless, fiber-based wireline (FiOS) and global IP (Internet protocol) networks.

Ivan Seidenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Verizon, said: “We expect that this transaction will benefit customers, employees and shareholders.  Customers can count on continued high levels of service and innovation from Frontier, which will bring its laser focus on the needs of rural customers to these operations.  Plus, Verizon and Frontier will work to ensure that the employees in these states, who have performed outstanding work for our customers for many years, will have a smooth transition of their employment to Frontier.”

Seidenberg added: “This transaction is an attractive way to add value through a special distribution to our shareholders.  Longer term, this transaction is part of our multiyear effort to transform our growth profile and asset base to focus on wireless, FiOS fiber-optic services and other broadband development, and global IP.  All of Verizon’s remaining local landline operations have high concentrations of FiOS in more densely populated markets.  We believe our focus on reshaping our asset base will drive higher growth over time and improve long-term returns.”

Frontier, based in Stamford, Conn., has a highly successful track record of acquiring, operating and investing in rural telecommunications properties, including landline assets purchased from Verizon between 1993 and 2000.  Frontier currently has approximately 2.3 million access lines in 24 states, providing an array of services, including local and long-distance voice, broadband data, and video.

Maggie Wilderotter, Frontier’s chairman and chief executive officer, said: “This is a truly transformational transaction for Frontier.  With more than 7 million access lines in 27 states, we will be the largest provider of voice, broadband and video services focused on rural to smaller city markets in the United States.  Frontier is committed to providing our customers with state-of-art technology and innovative products.  We are confident that we can dramatically accelerate the penetration of broadband in these new markets.  We know that broadband is a catalyst for a healthy local economy and job growth.”

Details of the Acquired Operations

The operations Frontier will acquire include all of Verizon’s local wireline operating territories in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.  In addition, the transaction will include a small number of Verizon’s exchanges in California, including those bordering Arizona, Nevada and Oregon.

As of year-end 2008, these operations served approximately 4.8 million local access lines; 2.2 million long-distance customers; 1.0 million high-speed data customers, including approximately 110,000 FiOS Internet customers; and 69,000 FiOS TV customers.

Approximately 11,000 Verizon company employees -- those who primarily support the local phone business that is being acquired -- will continue employment with Frontier after the merger.

Frontier and Verizon will provide a smooth transition for these employees.  Frontier will honor the union labor agreements in the 14 states and expects to work constructively with union leaders.

A Verizon transition team will work with Frontier in the coming months to ensure customer accounts, billing information and other assets from the operations will be successfully transferred to Frontier and that the transition is seamless for customers and employees.

The companies seek to complete the transaction in approximately 12 months.  It requires approval from Frontier shareholders, certain regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions, including the obtaining of financing.

The transaction includes Verizon’s switched and special access lines in the affected areas, as well as its Internet service and long-distance voice accounts.  Also included are fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) assets deployed by Verizon in 41 local franchises and the state of Indiana, which pass approximately 600,000 homes and small businesses.  Frontier will continue to provide video services in these areas after the completion of the merger.

The transaction does not include the services, offerings or assets of Verizon Wireless, Verizon Business (former MCI Inc.), Federal Network Systems LLC, Verizon Network Integration Corp., Verizon Global Networks Inc., Verizon Federal Inc. or any other Verizon businesses in these states.  Verizon Business is retaining contracts with its customers in these states and will purchase local exchange services from Frontier in order to serve these customers.

As of the end of the first quarter, Verizon had approximately 35.2 million wireline access lines in 25 states and the District of Columbia.  This includes Verizon’s wireline operations in jurisdictions that will not be part of the transaction:  Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia, plus most of California.

Transaction Details, Tax-Free Distribution

The acquired operations will be spun off in a new entity, which will be immediately merged into Frontier.  Verizon shareholders will receive approximately $5.3 billion of Frontier common stock in the merger, subject to a collar mechanism and certain other possible closing adjustments provided for in the merger agreement.  Verizon will receive approximately $3.33 billion in value through a combination of cash distributions to Verizon, debt securities issued to Verizon prior to the spinoff and assumption of certain debt previously issued by Verizon’s telephone company subsidiaries.  Verizon may exchange the newly issued debt securities for certain debt that was previously issued by Verizon, which would reduce the amount of outstanding debt on Verizon’s balance sheet.

Based on the midpoint of the collar, and assuming no closing adjustments, Verizon shareholders will own approximately 68 percent of the new company, and Frontier shareholders will own approximately 32 percent, with Verizon shareholders receiving one share of Frontier stock for approximately every 4.2 shares of Verizon stock held as of the record date.  The exact distribution ratio will be determined based on the number of shares of Verizon common stock outstanding on the record date for the spinoff and the average price of Frontier common stock (subject to the collar mechanism) for a 30-day measurement period ending shortly before the closing of the merger.

The collar provides that the number of Frontier shares delivered to Verizon shareholders will vary to compensate for changes in the price of Frontier shares (i.e. to assure delivery of a fixed aggregate value) to the extent the 30-day average Frontier share price described above varies between $7.00 and $8.50.

Both the spinoff and merger are expected to qualify as tax-free transactions, except to the extent that cash is paid to Verizon shareholders in lieu of fractional shares.  Verizon Communications will not own any shares in Frontier after the merger

The IBEW will be collecting completed proxies to deliver to Verizons top management. Below are voting recommendations from the IBEW Ststem T6 Council.

Item 1: Election of Directors VOTE AGAINST ALL

Item 2: No Recommendation

Item 3: Advisory Vote on Executive compensation VOTE AGAINST ITEM 3

Item 4: Approval of long term incentive plan VOTE AGAINST ITEM 4

Item 5: Approval of short term incentive plan VOTE AGAINST ITEM 5

Item 6: Stock Options VOTE FOR ITEM 6

Item 7: Special Shareholder Meeting VOTE FOR ITEM 7

Item 8: Seperate the roles of CEO and Board Chairman VOTE FOR ITEM 8

Item 9: Cumulative Voting for election of Board of Directors VOTE FOR ITEM 9

Please return your completed proxy in the original envelope directly to your steward or union representative by Thursday, April 30th.

The Corporate Profit Sharing Award for plan year 2008 is $749 and will be paid on March 5, 2009.

By Sen. John F. Kerry
The Herald News
Posted Feb 06, 2009 @ 02:33 PM

Americans today are working harder than ever, and too often finding that the secure and stable middle-class life their parents counted on is falling further and further out of reach for them and their children.

Story after story remind us just how much in the past working Americans have fallen behind in the past eight years. For those who have struggled during this difficult period, it comes as no surprise that median household income in 2007 was $1,175 less than it was in 2000, while basic family expenses rose $4,600 in that same period. These families dont need to be lectured with statistics they feel the middle-class squeeze every day in their paychecks and checkbooks.
Now with a new president and a new, strong progressive majority in Congress these workers are hoping that Washington will at last be an incubator of good policies that create opportunity, reward work not just wealth, and help restore the middle class. Thats why its so important that the 111th Congress pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

We know that one of the lessons of the Greatest Generation remains that when workers can join a union, the middle class is strengthened. The gains workers made in the last century would never have been possible had union organizers not marched and pushed and gone door to door, shop to shop, to stand up for their fellow workers.
Workers in unions earn 30 percent higher wages on average, and are 60 percent more likely to have employer-covered health insurance. The question is what we will do to empower workers in this new century and it should begin with The Employee Free Choice Acts common sense, fundamentally fair mission of making it easier for men and women to join a union in their workplace. The legislation would give workers a fair and direct path to form unions through majority sign-up, help employees secure a contract with their employer in a reasonable period of time and toughen penalties against employers who break the law.

Powerful, entrenched opponents of the legislation have made a variety of false statements, arguing that the bill will take away workers right to a secret ballot election, expose workers to intimidation and harassment or hurt the economy. These arguments are untrue and especially dubious because they have no reliable data to back them up. Too often, these objections come from the same people and groups that have enriched and protected Wall Street over Main Street among them those who opposed ideas like minimum wage increases and family medical leave, which history has proven are mainstream, commonsense policies.
Still, lets not let this debate spiral downward into name-calling. Consider the source, but also consider the facts.

Honest and well-meaning people can differ, and many small business owners in particular have asked me how this legislation would affect their businesses. I dont think they have much to worry about, for three key reasons.
First, in the decades when our labor laws protected workers free choice to join unions, small businesses thrived and America built the strongest middle class in the world. The evidence shows that our nations economy and overall productivity grew when American workers had an ability to share in the prosperity of our country and their companies.

Second, the Employee Free Choice Act makes no changes to the small business exemptions under our nations labor laws. Small businesses employing an estimated four million American workers would still be exempt and completely unaffected.
Third, the economic benefits of unions to all businesses, large and small, are well-established. Unions help reduce costs associated with turnover because they give employees a voice in the workplace to speak up for changes, rather than simply quitting or being fired. Employment security fuels collaboration and information sharing, leading to higher productivity.

The research also shows that union firms are just as productive and successful as non-union firms. A U.S. Small Business Administration report, for example, indicated that small business bankruptcy rates are lower in states with high unionization rates than they are in states where fewer workers have a voice.
In an ironic twist, the actual threat to small businesses may come from the groups fighting the Employee Free Choice Act most vigorously the big corporations whose very business strategies have consistently hurt small businesses across the country by squeezing small businesses out of the marketplace.

I believe that by helping put more money in working peoples pockets, the Employee Free Choice Act will strengthen our economy for everyone, including workers and customers of Americas small businesses.
Americans spoke powerfully on Election Day, demanding that Washington find bipartisan solutions to our economic problems. On Main Street, we need to do the same with policies that restore opportunity in our country and work for everyone. Passing the Employee Free Choice Act would be a big downpayment on that fairness agenda.

John F. Kerry is the junior senator from Massachusetts and former chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee.

01:00 AM EST on Monday, February 2, 2009

ROBERT B. REICH

BERKELEY, Calif.

WHY IS THIS recession so deep, and what can be done to reverse it?

Hint: Go back about 50 years, when America’s middle class was expanding and the economy was soaring. Paychecks were big enough to let us buy all the goods and services we produced. It was a virtuous circle. Good pay meant more purchases, and more purchases meant more jobs.

At the center of this virtuous circle were unions. In 1955, more than a third of working Americans belonged to one. Unions gave them the bargaining leverage they needed to get the paychecks that kept the economy going. So many Americans were unionized that wage agreements spilled over to non-unionized workplaces as well. Employers knew they had to match union wages to compete for workers and to recruit the best ones.

Fast forward to a new century. Now, fewer than 8 percent of private-sector workers are unionized. Corporate opponents argue that Americans no longer want unions. But public-opinion surveys, such as a comprehensive poll that Peter D. Hart Research Associates conducted in 2006, suggest that a majority of workers would like to have a union to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. So there must be some other reason for this dramatic decline.

But put that question aside for a moment. One point is clear: Smaller numbers of unionized workers mean less bargaining power, and less bargaining power results in lower wages.

It’s no wonder middle-class incomes were dropping even before the recession. As our economy grew between 2001 and the start of 2007, most Americans didn’t share in the prosperity. By the time that the recession began in late 2007, according to an Economic Policy Institute study, the median income of households headed by those under age 65 was below what it was in 2000.

Typical families kept buying only by going into debt. This was possible as long as the housing bubble expanded. Home-equity loans and refinancing made up for declining paychecks. But that’s over. American families no longer have the purchasing power to keep the economy going. Lower paychecks, or no paychecks at all, mean fewer purchases, and fewer purchases mean fewer jobs.

The way to get the economy back on track is to boost the purchasing power of the middle class. One major way to do this is to expand the percentage of working Americans in unions.

Tax rebates won’t work because they don’t permanently raise wages. Most families used the rebate last year to pay off debt — not a bad thing, but it doesn’t keep the virtuous circle running.

Bank bailouts won’t work either. Businesses won’t borrow to expand without consumers to buy their goods and services. And Americans themselves can’t borrow when they’re losing their jobs and their incomes are dropping.

Tax cuts for working families, as President Obama intends, can do more to help because they extend over time. But only higher wages and benefits for the middle class will have a lasting effect.

Unions matter in this equation. According to the Department of Labor, workers in unions earn 30-percent higher wages — taking home $863 a week, compared with $663 for the typical nonunion worker — and are 59-percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance than their nonunion counterparts.

Examples abound. In 2007, nearly 12,000 janitors in Providence, New Hampshire and Boston, represented by the Service Employees International Union, won a contract that raised their wages to $16 an hour, guaranteed more work hours and provided family health insurance. In an industry typically staffed by part-time workers with a high turnover rate, a union contract provided janitors with full-time, sustainable jobs that they could count on to raise their families’ — and their communities’ — standard of living.

In August, 65,000 Verizon workers, represented by the Communications Workers of America, won wage increases totaling nearly 11 percent and converted temporary jobs to full-time status. Not only did the settlement preserve fully paid health-care premiums for all active and retired unionized employees, but Verizon agreed also to provide $2 million a year to fund a collaborative campaign with its unions to achieve meaningful national health-care reform.

Although America and its economy need unions, it’s become nearly impossible for employees to form one. The Hart poll I cited tells us that 57 million workers would want to be in a union if they could have one. But those who try to form a union, according to researchers at MIT, have only about a 1 in 5 chance of successfully doing so.

The reason? Most of the time, employees who want to form a union are threatened and intimidated by their employers. And all too often, if they don’t heed the warnings, they’re fired, even though that’s illegal. I saw this when I was secretary of labor over a decade ago. We tried to penalize employers that broke the law, but the fines are minuscule. Too many employers consider them a cost of doing business.

This isn’t right. The most important feature of the Employee Free Choice Act, which will be considered by the new Congress, toughens penalties against companies that violate their workers’ rights. The sooner it’s enacted, the better — for U.S. workers and for the U.S. economy.

The American middle class isn’t looking for a bailout or a handout. Most people just want a chance to share in the success of the companies they help to prosper. Making it easier for all Americans to form unions would give the middle class the bargaining power it needs for better wages and benefits. And a strong and prosperous middle class is necessary if our economy is to succeed.

Robert B. Reich was secretary of labor in the Clinton administration and now is a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author, most recently, of Supercapitalism. This piece originated in the Los Angeles Times.

The jobless numbers out today are worse than even the most pessimistic analysts imagined: 524,000 jobs lost in December, pushing the nation’s unemployment rate to 7.2 percent. Under the Bush administration, 2008 has become the worst year for job loss since 1945, with nearly 2.6 million jobs lost last year alone. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 11.1 million of America’s workers are unemployed.

December was the 12th straight month of job loss and included a loss of 21,400 jobs in auto and parts industries. From Bloomberg:

Manufacturing, which makes up 12 percent of the economy, shrank in December at the fastest pace in 28 years, Institute for Supply Management figures showed. Payrolls at builders dropped by 101,000 after decreasing 85,000. Financial firms reduced payrolls by 14,000, after a 28,000 loss the prior month. Service industries, which include banks, insurance companies, restaurants and retailers, subtracted 273,000 workers after a decline of 402,000.

 

Employment in retail trade declined by 67,000 in December and by 522,000 for all of 2008. More than half of the losses in 2008 occurred in the last four months of the year.

And it’s taking longer and longer to find a job, as National Employment Law Project Executive Director Christine Owens notes:

It is particularly telling that the number of Americans who have been looking for work for more than six months skyrocketed to a whopping 2.6 million, now accounting for nearly one in four of the unemployed.

As bad as the official 7.2 percent unemployment rate is, the situation for unemployed or underemployed is actually far worse. The official unemployment rate of  7.2 percent does not include underemployed workers and those who are discouraged, and if they were included, analysts estimate the U.S. unemployment rate would be 13.5 percent, up 6 percentage points from 2007.

But it looks like the Bush legacy of job destruction will continue long after he’s gone. Meeting last month, the Federal Reserve predicted the U.S. economy is likely to deteriorate further this year and unemployment will rise into 2010.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney today spelled out the steps needed for long-term economic health:

Broad-based economic changes must be made to ensure sustained economic growth and broadly shared prosperity.  We must restore American competitiveness to deal with our country’s unsustainable trade deficit. We must guarantee affordable, quality health care coverage for everyone.  We must thoroughly reform our financial regulatory system to provide more transparency and effective government oversight and regulation. And to ensure that the middle class is rebuilt, we must pass the Employee Free Choice Act so workers can bargain collectively with their employers for better lives.

Yesterday, President-elect Barack Obama urged Congress to act quickly on an economic recovery package before it’s too late. Already, some in the Senate want to slow the process, delaying passage until mid-to-late February. As Obama puts it:

I don’t believe it’s too late to change course, but it will be if we don’t take dramatic action as soon as possible. If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years. The unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. We could lose a generation of potential and promise, as more young Americans are forced to forgo dreams of college or the chance to train for the jobs of the future. And our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and standing in the world.

In short, a bad situation could become dramatically worse.