PORTLAND, Maine (AP) _ FairPoint Communications and two unions representing more than 1,700 workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are continuing negotiations. But there's little progress to report on a new labor pact.
Mike Spillane from Local 2326 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Vermont said the unions put a new proposal before the company on Thursday that addresses the key issues of pensions, health care and contract workers. But he says company negotiators left the session within 10 minutes without comment.
FairPoint emerged from bankruptcy in 2011, but has still struggled to become profitable.
Workers have remained on the job even though they've been without a contract for nearly two weeks. Spillane says he fears union negotiators are ``running out of rope.''
