FairPoint workers unhappy about planned layoffs at the telecommunications company plan to picket Thursday morning in Portland.
Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Communications Workers of America plan to conduct informational picketing at 1 Davis Farm Road from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. to protest the company’s unwillingness to compromise in talks about the recently announced layoffs of more than 10 percent of the northern New England workforce, according to a news release from the unions.
FairPoint Communications announced on May 15 that it will lay off more than 200 employees in its northern New England operations. Since then, leaders of IBEW and CWA local unions have met with company representatives to discuss the layoff process in an attempt to reduce the number of workers who will lose their jobs, to no avail.
The unions say the cuts are unnecessary and will erode service quality for the region’s telecommunications customers.
North Carolina-based FairPoint Communications and the two unions ended a four-month strike in February. More than 1,700 workers walked off the job the previous October after ongoing contract negotiations failed to reconcile the company’s desire to cut $700 million in operating costs and the unions’ offer of $200 million in concessions.
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