IBEW Local 21 (Downers Grove IL) Update on SBC

News at SBC

Here’s an update on the status of our unions 2004 arbitration win on the dispute with SBC in which the company contracted out work after the layoff of Local 21 members, in violation of our collective bargaining agreement. Our goal when we arbitrated this case, in addition to getting the company to abide by the terms of the agreement, was and still is, to get our laid off members back on the payroll as soon as possible. On prior updates, we reported that SBC’s stall tactics in this case are blatantly wrong and would not be tolerated by our union.

SBC’s tactics in this dispute are clear. The company’s goal, while gutless, is to delay resolution of this dispute by not complying with the Arbitrators award, past the date that our laid off brothers and sisters maintain recall rights. Union members understand that our contract includes a grievance and arbitration procedure to resolve member’s workplace disputes with SBC. The last step of resolution is arbitration, where both sides, the company and the union, mutually select a neutral third party to hear the positions and arguments from both sides, along with testimony and other rational on the dispute at hand. Once the arbitrator renders a decision in the case, it is final and binding on both sides, as agreed to in our collective bargaining agreement. You win some and you lose some, but again, the decision is final.

United States Federal policy favors industrial peace, and therefore it favors contract agreements which include both arbitration and no-strike clauses. It is important that all Local 21 members understand that our contract includes a no-strike clause, which is the quid pro quo for the agreement to arbitrate our disputes with SBC. In other words, the union gives up the right to strike in the middle of the contract in exchange for an alternative method for enforcing its rights under the collective bargaining agreement.

Agreements to arbitrate should be specifically enforced as a matter of federal law, which specifically advances the policy of peaceful resolution of labor disputes. We offer this brief explanation of arbitration labor law so that all members fully understand SBC’s latest cowardly move in what should legally be, an already settled dispute.

Last week, in Chicago, SBC filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, demanding to have the arbitrator’s award vacated and thrown out. Named as the defendant in the suit is Local 21, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO. In addition to its demands to vacate the arbitrator’s award, SBC has asked the Court to award plaintiff SBC its costs, reasonable attorney fees and all other relief the court deems just.

If every time SBC loses a major case in arbitration, it refuses to abide by the arbitrators decision or takes the Union to Court, one might ask why then continue to abide by the no-strike clause in the contract. There are many answers to this question, but one that stands out is Integrity. Both sides signed and agreed to the terms of the contract. One side continues to violate it, and one side continues to represent the rights of the workers covered by it. One side represents runaway corporate power and greed and one side fights every day for a better life for all working families, at work and at home in our communities. SBC pathetic attempt of a knockout punch in round twelve of a ten round fight is indicative of their desire to become the Wal-Mart of the Telecommunications Industry. In spite of all the legal mumbo-jumbo and explanation of the law, this fight is not about lawsuits or who makes the next legal move, this fight is about the lives of our laid off brothers and sisters and their families and their right to a decent job - a union job. Many still have not found work and are truly hurting and SBC could care less, as they continue using outside contractors to perform jobs right here in our jurisdiction. We must never forget that an injury to one is an injury to all.

Our union is not taking SBC’s lawsuit or their continued delays lightly. We are immediately countersuing SBC asking simply that the judge issue an order to the company to comply with Arbitrators award.

SBC is attempting to manipulate the law, the courts, the integrity of the arbitration procedure and even the collective bargaining agreement, but most important, SBC is injuring our brothers and sisters waiting for recall. In suits to enforce arbitration awards, the law says that the courts should not accept even serious error of fact or contract interpretation as grounds for vacating an award. As long as the arbitrator is even arguably acting within the scope of the contractual authority, the award should be enforced.

As involved members of IBEW Local 21, we ask that each and every member raise this issue daily with each and every SBC manager, and let’s ride them each and every day until they are sick and tired of hearing about it and until we have justice in this dispute. Because when there is no justice – there must be no peace.