PORTLAND, Maine - FairPoint workers hit the picket lines again Thursday morning just months after a four-month strike ended in February.
Local Maine IBEW 2327 union President Diane Winton says they're protesting planned layoffs for 260 employees across the company's 17 markets.
"A lot of the departments they've targeted are into forced overtime, and we don't understand," Winton said. "If you're mandatory making people work overtime, how can you cut from that department?"
FaiPoint spokesperson Angelynne Beaudry says it's a competitive industry, and that the company's voice access lines have declined by more than 15 percent in the past two years. Beaudry says it's more effective to manage spikes on demand rather than maintaining staffing at the highest level.
