News:
DC Circuit Court of Appeals Rules on Net Neutrality
On October 1st, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals issued a significant ruling on Net Neutrality. The court upheld the FCC’s elimination of the federal Net
Neutrality rules which were put in place by Chairman Wheeler in 2015 under the Obama
Administration. However, the court also ruled that states
can
regulate broadband and that the FCC's action to preempt states from doing this was improper. This means that the 22 states that passed
their own Net Neutrality rules were within their rights to do so and any state is now free to set their own Net Neutrality rules. Unless reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court or an act
of Congress, the court’s ruling moves the Net Neutrality battle to the
states.
FCC Approves Funding for Broadband Expansion
The FCC recently approved 563 million dollars to expand broadband in 24 states in unserved rural areas.This will provide broadband access to 220,000 homes and businesses in these states. However, 24 million Americans still lack access to broadband. The funding for this effort comes from the Connect America Fund which was created in 2011.
IBEW SCT-3 Call Center Members Overwhelmingly Ratify New Contract
The membership of the IBEW SCT-3 covered under the AT&T/DIRECTV Call Center agreement have voted overwhelmingly to ratify the tentative agreement. The new four year agreement covers approximately 1,600 employees working in call centers located in Boise, ID, Chicago, IL, and Missoula, MT. Highlights of the new agreement include:
Wage Increases:
- 2.25% effective Aug 25, 2019
- 3% effective Aug 23, 2020
- 2.25% effective Aug 22, 2021
- 2.25% effective 21 Aug 2022
$750 Ratification Bonus Lump Sum Payment.
In addition, a new higher wage schedule for Customer Care Associate and Customer Resolution Associate is being established at all steps. When combined with the general wage increase above, the cumulative raise at top rate is nearly 12%. For employees in wage progression, the wage increase could total as much as 39% during the term of the contract.
Contractual language changes:
- Mini-shift bids when new hires are released so that senior employees have more favorable schedule options.
- Limits on the number of call observations that can be conducted each month by management. Employees also involved in selecting the calls to be reviewed.
- Increase the time for a grievance to be filed from 15 days of the incident to 30 days.
A special thanks to all of our members for their hard work, solidarity, attendance at the many contract explanation meetings, and ultimate acceptance of the contract.
Tentative Agreement Reached on the AT&T/DIRECTV on Technician Agreement
The IBEW SCT-3 and AT&T/DIRECTV have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract covering over 1,200 employees working for the company nationwide who install and repair AT&T DIRECTV services for customers in the states of Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Washington. Highlights of the tentative agreement include:
Wage Increases:
- 3% effective August 25, 2019
- 2.25% effective August 23, 2020
- 3% effective August 22, 2021
- 2.5% effective August 21, 2022
Ratification Bonus-$1,000
Contract Language
- Decrease in the minimum amount of required mandatory overtime per week from 17 hours to 14 hours.
- Retained pensions for current employees and new hires.
- A new Letter of Agreement on Potential DIRECTV Prem Tech Work. This letter requires the Company and Union to engage in discussions about the potential of moving work currently performed by subcontractors to bargaining unit employees.
- Retained Protection Against Layoffs Due to Subcontracting
- Added 2 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave
- Increased Severance Pay
Net Neutrality-Federal-The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill which would restore the 2015 Net Neutrality rules developed during the Obama administration. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the bill is “dead on arrival” in the Senate. The IBEW has taken the position that any Net Neutrality regulation should contain the following:
- No Blocking of Legal Content
- No ISP may not block any legal content for any reason.
- No “Throttling” of Content-An ISP may not “throttle” or degrade any content (e.g. slow a website down). ·
- Transparency in Billing-No cramming or slamming customers
- No Discriminatory Actions by Internet Service Providers
- Consumer Privacy
Important Dates:
2019 Fall Council Meetings - Naples, FL. Oct 29 - Nov 1, 2019
2020 BMT - Milwaukee, WI. May 18 - May 22, 2020
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