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CWA Members on Strike at Sprint in Four States

Posted on: Monday, 10 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Citing company demands for massive contract concessions, nearly a thousand Sprint Corp. workers represented by the Communications Workers of America went on strike at midnight last night at local Sprint telephone operations in Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina and Indiana.

"This is the most profitable segment of the entire company, yet Sprint is demanding contract concessions that amount to an attack on our paychecks, our families' health security, our job conditions and our very future with the company," said Jimmy Gurganus, CWA vice president for Telecommunications.

He said that CWA members at all four units have been bargaining with the company for months and are fighting not only for quality jobs but for quality service as Sprint, in the process of merging with Nextel, moves to spin off all of its local telephone operations, which serve 7.5 million customers in mostly rural areas.

Sprint siphoned off $8.7 billion in earnings from its local telephone companies from 1998 to 2003, Gurganus noted, using the money to invest in expansion of its wireless and data networks, rather than in maintaining and upgrading local service and rolling out high speed Internet service, still lacking in many areas.

Among the strike issues, Sprint wants to eliminate the cap on employee contributions to health premiums, which would allow management to shift up to 100 percent of its health costs to the workers. The company also wants to get rid of current limits on transferring work * and jobs * to outside contractors, eliminate its contributions to the employees' 401(k) savings plan, slash both short-term and long-term disability benefits, eliminate overtime pay for Sunday work, cut back on paid leave for vacations, holidays and sick leave, and weaken workers' seniority rights.

The strike involves about 300 members represented by Local 3871 in Bluff City, Tenn. (Tri-Cities area); about 100 represented by Local 3672 in Hickory, N.C.; 40 represented by Local 4700 in Evansville, Ind., and about 500 represented by Local 3176 in Ocala, Fla.

Communications Workers of America

CONTACT: Jeff Miller, +1-703-799-1224, or Candice Johnson,+1-703-528-2553, cell: +1-202-415-6566, both of CWA Communications

Web site: http://www.cwa-union.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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