Recently, FairPoint Communications placed a full page ad in the Sun Journal explaining its side of the strike. There is another side.
FairPoint wants the workers to give up nearly $700 million in concessions. That would be done by reducing present worker benefits and future hires’ wages and benefits.
Will those concessions be used to pay down debt and reduce rates? Or be invested in hedge funds? A private equity firm owns nearly 20 percent of FairPoint stock. God only knows what other Wall Street interests are involved and FairPoint isn’t giving any answers.
FairPoint also mentioned the average wage of $82,500 for its employees. I wonder how much of that is from working overtime during the week and weekends to ensure that customer service is restored as soon as possible after storms, accidents and system failures. Isn’t that what customers expect from them?
FairPoint has offered no concrete explanation as to what it means when its says its wishes to use subcontractors where and when needed.
In speaking with FairPoint employees, it is obvious they are proud of the work they do and that they value their customers and are upset that those same customers are going without phone and/or Internet services because the replacement contractors, mostly from out of state, are unskilled and unable to return service in a timely fashion.
Will those be the same contractors FairPoint wants to use?
The strike is not about unionism; it’s about corporate greed and the workers who are fighting it.
Joseph Mailey, Auburn
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