The FairPoint workers strike attracted dozens of people in Augusta and Waterville Friday morning, with some hoisting signs and chanting near company offices and on street corners.
“That we’re fighting for our customers as much as we’re fighting for ourselves, I think, is key,” said Brian Bealieu, an installation technician in Waterville.
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The workers were among about 900 in Maine and 2,000 in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont who went on strike at midnight Thursday.
According to Beaulieu, the Waterville garage had 17 technicians when he started there eight or nine years ago. It has five today, he said.
“Used to be when somebody’s line was out of service, we’d have 24 hours to commit to it,” Beaulieu said. “Now, it’s wide open. Sometimes, we’re finding that we’re three or four weeks behind.”
About 1,700 workers in the three states are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The Communication Workers of America represents another 300. The employees have been working under the provisions of a contract that expired Aug. 2. Most of those picketing in Waterville and Augusta are members of IBEW Local 2327, which represents most of the Fairpoint workers in Maine according to Peter McLaughlin, business manager for the union.
Christina Williams, an organizer with the IBEW unit, and a 34-year veteran of the company, said the strike is also about job security.
“They need to know that these are good jobs and that job security is what we want, and we feel totally disrespected by FairPoint at this point, and that’s why we’re out here,” she said when asked what they want the public to know about the strike.
Williams organized workers in front of a FairPoint dispatch center off Industrial Street. There were about 20 workers picketing there, and another seven picketing at the corner of Industrial Street and Armory Road.
Off Industrial Street, workers chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, corporate greed has got to go.”
Williams said picketers arrived around 7 a.m. and she was heartened by the response as passing motorists honked their horns and waved in support.
In Augusta, seven striking workers from different offices in central Maine gathered near the central FairPoint Communications office at 139 State St.
“We’re supporting the Maine community and Maine families,” said Robert Bean, of Belgrade, as he marched with other strikers. “We don’t want out of state people coming in to do our jobs.”
Bean, who has worked for FairPoint for six years, said the strikers would be there “until they give us a fair contract.”
Marching along with Bean was Dan McLaughlin of Mount Vernon. It’s the third strike for McLaughlin over his 15 years with Bell Atlantic, then Verizon and now FairPoint.
In 2000, the strike lasted about two weeks, he said, and then in 2003, for several days.
This time, McLauglin said, “It’s a lot different.”
He said the workers are striking because they object to proposals to freeze their pensions, eliminate retiree healthcare benefits, and bring in outside contractors at any time.
“We’re out here for the public,” McLaughlin said. “We want to have good jobs for the future for our kids.”
Peter McLaughlin, who is business manager for the IBEW Local 2327, said they agree their labor contract needs adjustment to bring it in line with other companies.
However, he said, the concessions that FairPoint is seeking go far beyond that.
“What they’re trying to impose is very draconian and would take us right to the bottom,” he said.
In a statement, FairPoint spokeswoman Angelynne Beaudry said the company is “disappointed” by the workers’ decision to “walk out,” but service will not be interrupted.
“We value every customer, and it is important for them to know that we have comprehensive contingency plans in place to ensure the service they, and the economy and communities of northern New England, rely on continues without interruption,” she said.
According to Beaudry, the workers’ labor agreement with FairPoint expired in August. Despite months of negotiations, she said the two sides “remain far apart on the issues we think are key to the future of the company.”
Beaudry noted that FairPoint never proposed a reduction in existing employees’ base pay.
North Carolina-based FairPoint Communications Inc. bought the land-line telephone and Internet system that serves northern New England in 2007 from Verizon Communications.
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