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ROCHESTER - It looks like it may take nothing short of a Christmas miracle to get FairPoint management and its union linemen back to the bargaining table.
For Will Talon of Rochester, a telephone employee since the NYNEX days almost 20 years ago, 60 days without a paycheck is making for a bleak holiday season.
It was two months ago today the strike began.
"A lot of people are struggling," Talon said on Monday. "It's a very painful time to go with no income."
Vermont has allowed striking union workers to receive unemployment benefits, but not New Hampshire and Maine.
More than 1,700 workers are on strike in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. About 800 are in Maine.
"It's looking grim," said Rob Johnson, a 28-year lineman from Sanford who works with Talon on FairPoint lines from Dover to Conway.
Johnson and Talon both spoke of replacement lineworkers from California and Oregon who have no telecom experience now doing work they used to do and say they're not doing a good job.
Negotiations over a new contract broke down in April, said Glenn Bracket, business manager for New Hampshire IBEW local 2320.
Brackett said in August the union offered three separate counterproposals, which FairPoint chose to ignore.
"They haven't moved since April," Brackett said. "They want to outsource every single job."
FairPoint's desire to use subcontractors is at the nub of the negotiating stalemate, but company spokesperson Angelynne Beaudry said FairPoint workers shouldn't be concerned.
"We're forbidden to subcontract when it affects a union worker," Beaudry said on Tuesday. "We just want to be able to use them in emergencies and on newer technologies."
Brackett bristled at hearing that, adding "I want to see that in writing."
Picketers Talon and Johnson mirrored Brackett's sentiments.
"They want to bring in contractors for all positions as they see fit," Talon said. "They want to get rid of the union. That's their ultimate goal."
Beaudry, however, said that's not the case and pointed out the workers have it pretty good and should return to work under the agreement FairPoint installed in August.
Union workers in 2013 averaged $82,500 in salary, $115,000 with their benefit package, which also includes a contributing 401k, she said.
With the implementation of the new plan, however, workers saw a reduction in the company's health care contributions, from 100 percent to 79 percent and loss of their pension program.
Brackett said the financial concessions being asked of union members by FairPoint amount to more than $900 million. He said the union's counterproposals made in August allowed for more than $200 million, adding that that was enough.
Both union and company appear to be digging in their heels, with little give shown by either side.
"They want to replace good jobs in the region with low-paying contract labor," Brackett said. "The ball's in their court."
One sad byproduct of the prolonged stalemate is the collateral damage in several outages blamed on inexperienced staff doing routine maintenance such as in a statewide Vermont outage last month that also took out service to a wide area of New Hampshire. Maine was not affected.
On Tuesday U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch sent a letter to FairPoint CEO Paul Sunu chastising the company for its refusal to negotiate.
"It is becoming increasingly clear to Vermonters that management is more concerned with the interests of corporate owners of FairPoint than negotiating a reasonable agreement that is fair to your workers and customers," the delegation wrote.
Beaudry, meanwhile, said the workers have a good deal right now with the plan implemented on Aug. 28. She said no counterproposals that address the core issues have been offered since then.
"It's their choice when they want to come back," she said.
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