Piedmont Bargaining Update for April 2017

The CWA Bargaining Team met on April 18, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to work on answers to proposals and counter proposals we received during our last round of bargaining. On April 19 and 20, we met with the company’s bargaining team to continue working toward a fair and equitable contract. Over the course of the two days of meetings with the company, a total of 17 proposals and counters passed between the two sides. 

We reached Tentative Agreements on Article 18, Safety and Health; Article 21, No Strike, No Lock-out; Article 23, Union Security; Article 25, Political Action Fund; and Article 26, Non-discrimination—all with minor clean-up language that didn’t change the intent of any of the articles.  

The company presented new proposals on Article 4, Filling Vacancies; Article 10, Uniforms; Article 11, Holidays; and Article 24, General and Miscellaneous. We were able to respond to the company’s proposals on Holidays and Filling Vacancies. We expect to be prepared to respond to the other proposals when we meet in May.   

A lot of our time over the two days was spent on Article 8, Overtime; Article 9, Training; and Article 12, Vacation. We made significant progress on both Article 8, Overtime and Article 12, Vacation. We have agreed to most of the language in Articles 8 and 12, but a couple of sticking points remain to be hammered out.

Our next round of bargaining is scheduled for May 17 and 18.  

On Wednesday, April 19, the CWA Bargaining Team held a town hall call to discuss the progress we’ve made so far, the bargaining process, the importance of mobilization, and how members can have an impact at the bargaining table. We were able to answer most of the questions we received when members registered for the call, along with several questions that came in during the call.  

If members were on the call and clicked "1" to join the Mobilization Team, we will ask local mobilization coordinators to contact those members soon.  

In Unity,

Marge Krueger – Chair
Paul C. Castaneda – Co-Chair
Keith Richardson – President 13345
Donielle Prophete – Vice President 3645
Rick Brower – President 7040