Local 2323 will be having our annual Holiday food drive November 20th through December 18th. This food drive will benefit the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. We will be collecting non-perishable items and or cash to benefit the needy in RI. Last year Local 2323 members collected 1121lbs of food and also donated $2070.00.

Verizon Communications Inc., the region's largest telephone company, said it fired 14 managers in the Boston area about two weeks ago for "falsifying company reports" that track the hours employees work.

Verizon spokesman Phil Santoro said the misconduct did not affect customers, but violated the company's code of conduct.

Separately, Verizon recently said it was cutting 2,700 management-level jobs nationwide, about 1 percent of its total workforce, including an unspecified number in Massachusetts, where it has about 13,000 employees.
(By Todd Wallack, Globe staff)

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2008/11/14_verizon_mana.html

************IMPORTANT BENEFIT INFORMATION ************

Open enrollment for benefit year 2009 will be November 12- November 29 , comparisons will not be automatically mailed to you , beginning October 29th you may call 877 489-2367 to have side by side comparisons sent to you(recommended)

or you may go to www.verizon.com/benefits to print them

Members with MEP or MEP/PPO will be mailed a brochure for new combined plan if you make no choices you will default to the new combined plan.

Verizon engineers seek fair treatment and collective bargaining rights in wake of announced layoffs

A majority of Verizon's more than 250 outside plant engineers in New
England have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a
certification election to form a union with the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).

Despite a 31 percent third quarter increase in earnings, on October
30, Verizon Communications told as many as 39 engineers that they would
be laid off before the end of November.

Without collective bargaining rights or a union contract, the
engineers had no voice in the decision. Many engineers are being laid
off while outside contractors are working for Verizon doing similar
work. The engineers work for Verizon in Massachusetts and Rhode Island
designing installations for union technicians.

Union leaders are calling on Verizon to give the engineers the same
consideration that union members would get if management needed to
reduce staff.

"No engineer should lose their job while there are outside
contractors on the property," said Myles Calvey, Business Manager of
IBEW Local 2222 and Chairman of the T-6 Council. "If layoffs are
needed, the company should provide strong financial incentives for
people to leave voluntarily and follow a negotiated procedure for
selecting who is laid off."

To coincide with the layoff announcements on Thursday, union
activists handed out leaflets to union members, engineers and managers
at 11 locations in Massachusetts and Rhode Island where engineers are
facing layoffs.

Pictures of union members leafleting and showing support for the
laid off engineers in front Verizon's New England headquarters in
Boston can be viewed HERE.

Other leafleting took place at Verizon facilities in Braintree,
Brockton, Dracut, Marlboro, New Bedford, Saugus, Springfield,
Wakefield, Watertown, Woburn and Pawtucket, RI.

After an 18 month long campaign by IBEW 2323 and the employees at Precision Camera an election is on the horizon. This campaign was met with stiff opposition from Precision Camera Management stalling a previous election petition filed last December by hiring 50 employees the day after an election petition was filed.

In September of this year Precision took the jobs of the lens repair technicians and moved their work to Mexico and sent the employees home with out a paycheck for their families throughout the holiday season.

This action on the part of Precision management mobilized the 191 employees who work for Precision Camera in Enfield, CT to work even harder to educate their fellow workers on the benefits on joining a union. On December 5th the camera repair technicians will hold a secret ballot election to decide if they want to be represented by IBEW Local 2323.