Local 1400 Fighting for a Fair Contract - Tentative Agreement Reached

Consolidated Communications Workers (formerly Fairpoint), members of CWA Local 1400 and IBEW 2327, have been fighting hard for a fair contract—and they may be at the finish line after several public demonstrations and picket lines, as well as a strike authorization vote.

The major sticking points between the workers and management are the company’s insistence on being able to use outside contractors to perform work currently being done by union members, and moving work outside of Northern New England, making the work less safe and weakening the workers' power.

The current contract, covering 1,000 workers in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, expired on August 7, but both sides were at the bargaining table throughout the weekend and announced a tentative agreement late Sunday night, following months of negotiations and actions by the workers.

Members voted last month to authorize a strike if they did not reach an agreement with the company by midnight Saturday, after being at the negotiation table since March, and held several informational pickets to call attention to their contract fight.

Details of the TA have not yet been made public, but this is a promising step in the fight for a fair contract.