PORTLAND, Maine - A meeting in Boston between FairPoint Communications and representatives of 1,700 striking workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont has failed to produce a breakthrough. This was the first get-together since contract talks broke down nearly three months ago.
FairPoint declared an impasse in late August and imposed a contract that froze the old pension plan and required workers to contribute to health care costs for the first time. Other provisions allow the company to hire contractors and eliminate retiree health care benefits for current workers.
Employees went on strike last month in protest. There were hopes of a breakthrough when striking workers and company representatives returned to the negotiating table Tuesday morning in talks arranged by a federal mediator.
The hopes were short-lived, however, when talks collapsed after about an hour. Unions representing more than 1,700 workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, said that FairPoint declined to modify its demands.
"These are our jobs, these are our lives, and we want to go back to work with a fair contract," says union mobilizer Vicki Hall. Hall was among the handful of FairPoint employees picketing the company's offices Tuesday morning in downtown Portland.
"We've been making tons of concessions and really wanting a lot of concessions in order to get the contract made and they're not budging," Hall says. "It gives us a lot of false hope, every day."
Most FairPoint employees are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which took its message into people's homes last week when it released a series of new TV ads in the New England market.
Audio from TV ad: "We've made concessions, we've worked our overtime to make this company what it is today. We've brought them through bankruptcy, all we want to do is get back to work. We just want a fair deal."
Labor unions claim FairPoint workers have offered management more than $200 million in cost-saving compromises since negotiations began, and accuse the company of never moving.
For its part, FairPoint, which emerged from bankruptcy three years ago, has maintained the contracts need to be renegotiated for the company to stay competitive.
In an emailed statement, FairPoint's director of corporate communications, Angelynne Beaudry, said the company walked away from the talks because the unions had no meaningful proposal to offer.