BIDDEFORD — The impasse between FairPoint and unions representing workers in northern New England continues.

On Tuesday in Boston, the first meeting since late August ”“ when FairPoint declared an impasse and imposed a contract that union workers objected to ”“ yielded no new results.

The meeting was ordered by a federal mediator. It lasted about one hour, according to the Associated Press.

Both the company and unions, representing more than 1,700 striking workers, including some in Biddeford, blamed each other for the lack of progress and failing to offer a compromise, according to the AP.

“We have urged the unions to make proposals that would meaningfully address our goals, and told them that when they did, we would respond and negotiate new agreements,” said FairPoint spokeswoman Angelynne Beaudry

At Tuesday’s meeting, “The unions made no proposal, and for that reason, the impasse continues,” she said. “We have told the mediators that when the unions are ready to make meaningful proposals, we will be prepared to meet with them.”

“For now, the unions appear ready to continue their strike, and FairPoint is committed to continuing to execute our contingency plans to provide quality service to our customers,” said Beaudry.

Union leaders said FairPoint is the one not willing to compromise.

“The company began these talks demanding $700 million in crippling cuts, and today, they’re still making the same demand,” said Peter McLaughlin, chair of System Council T-9 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “They’re not trying to find common ground with us, they’re trying to turn good, middle-class jobs into low-wage jobs with bare-bones benefits.”

“This North Carolina company can keep dragging its heels, but we will win a fair deal for New England,” said Mike Spillane, business manager of IBEW Local 2326 in Vermont. “We will not allow them to outsource the good jobs of New England and turn them into temp jobs filled by out-of-state contractors.”

To influence public opinion in favor of striking workers, the IBEW released four new television ads featuring FairPoint Communications employees and retirees calling on the company to return to the bargaining table and give workers a “fair deal.” The spots will run in the Boston, Manchester, New Hampshire, and Portland, Maine markets.

One ad features Marc Jutras, a father of three, who is worried about how to provide for his family as the strike, which began Oct. 17, lingers on.

“My wife passed away in 2013,” he says. “It was devastating to all of us. It’s daunting to not know where that next paycheck is coming from.”

Another ad features Kristen Wescott, whose 11-year-old daughter suffers from a congenital heart defect. But Wescott has no idea how her family will pay for life-saving surgery, because FairPoint canceled health benefits for striking workers Oct. 31.

Earlier this month, FairPoint made its own appeal to the public by running full-page ads in many print publications, including the Journal Tribune.

The ads say that worker benefits were costing too much in the old contracts.

“The old Union contracts are holdovers from the bygone days of Ma Bell monopolies,” according to the ad, signed by the three presidents for the FairPoint subsidiaries in each of the three New England states where the company provides service.

“To best serve 21st-century customers ”¦ we want to reduce our monopoly-era telephony company costs,” stated Mike Reed, the company’s Maine president, Beth Fastiggi, the Vermont president and New Hampshire’s President Pat McHugh in the ad.

Under the old contract, the company paid 100 percent of union employees’ health care premiums; it only pays 79 percent under the new contract, said Beaudry.

The old contracts also included “generous” employee retirement plans, said Beaudry.

“We recognized we had a rich contract,” McLaughlin told the Journal Tribune earlier this month, but the cuts FairPoint is asking for are “excessive.”

“We proposed $219 million in concessions,” he said. “That’s significant movement for us.”

Some customers are feeling the pain as the strike continues.

“FairPoint’s attack on its skilled workers is an attack on the customers we serve,” said Don Trementozzi, president of Communications Workers of America Local 1400. “FairPoint’s executives need to understand northern New England’s telecom network isn’t their own personal profit center. It’s the lifeline of the people we serve.”

The CWA is the other union representing FairPoint workers.

Prior to the strike, the Maine Public Utilities Commission received an average of four calls per week regarding problems with FairPoint, which is a low amount, said Derek Davidson, director of Consumer Assistance and Safety, a division of the PUC.

Since the strike began, the number of calls has increased significantly, averaging 50 to 65 calls per week.

The majority of complaints, said Davidson, include customers having a hard time reaching FairPoint, the company missing scheduled service calls or taking too long to schedule service calls.

When the PUC receives complaints, he said, the commission passes on customers’ contact information to FairPoint and the issues are usually resolved.

The PUC also has the ability to initiate an investigation, said Davidson, but noted, “Obviously, we know what’s going on.”

Beaudry issued a customer service update on Nov. 5, acknowledging long wait times and service problems resulting from the strike.

“We have been adding to our contractor work force every day to supplement our management team and more are scheduled to come on-line,” she wrote. “FairPoint is working hard every day to eliminate the backlog of customer service requests and mitigate the disruption caused by our workers walking off the job.”

“The strike itself isn’t something we have a role in,” he said. The PUC’s role is to “ensure a utility is providing reasonable and adequate service.”

It if gets to the point that isn’t happening, the PUC can issue an order requiring FairPoint to meet its responsibility.

But, said Davidson, “It’s not at that point.”

In the wake of Tuesday’s meeting, FairPoint workers and their supporters from across the Northeast are planning a major rally in Montpelier, Vermont on Thursday.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report. Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 324 or [email protected].