Communications Workers of America Local 1102/ACS

BREAKING NEWS
*CWA LOCAL 1102 WINS
15- MONTH FIGHT*
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*** Click Here To See Photos From Hearing ***

Greetings ACS/Xerox workers,

So much is happening, here is an update on the campaign for Justice.

1) NYS Senate Holds a Hearings on ACS
Senators Bill Perkins and Diane Savino held a hearing on Friday to investigate the illegal behavior of ACS/Xerox. Five workers attended and gave testimony, including Frank Buonvicino (Call Center), Patti Russo (Call Center), John Joyner (Correspondence), Maria Rivera (Call Center), and Santina Fiumani (Violations). The Senators heard how the company illegally removes flyers from the breakroom, how they have illegally refused to bargain, and how ABC hurts customers, and how the company is planning on taking away the parachutte period illegally.

All 3 authorities were forced to attend, and after hearing the testimony, all the agencies expressed disappointment in ACS. They even went so far as to say they felt that ACS/Xerox was coming dangerously close to violating section 2.05 of the contract, called "Labor Harmony." The authorities have demanded a meeting with ACS/Xerox on May 5th to discuss their illegal activities.

ACS/Xerox failed to show up to the hearing. The Senators and even the authorities expressed shock and disbelief that ACS/Xerox would disrespect the Senate in this way. The Senators warned that they would issue subpeonas if necessary to compel them to show up next time.

NY1 covered the story, as did NPR. Click here for their stories: http://www.ny1.com/9-staten-island-news-content/top_stories/117950/e-zpass-workers-speak-out-at-meeting?ap=1&Flash

and here: http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/154305

2) Xerox starting to change their position
As a result of the pressure the union is putting on the company, Xerox is now saying they have launched an "internal review" of the situation at the company, and will issue a decision no later than July 1. They seem to be hinting that they may drop their appeal at the Labor Board and begin to bargain after July 1. If this is true, it would mean we can start to try and rebuild a relationship with this employer based on mutual respect. And more importantly, it would mean we could finally sit down and bargain. This would be a great victory.

3) More press to come
It seems every week, more and more media attention is coming to this story. In addition to the above, we got a great story in The Chief, and we expect a story on FOX 5 again very soon.

4) Terminations
ACS/Xerox has terminated a few long time employees, and have gone out of their way to fight their rights to unemployment. Just last week, the company sent Rey Devila and an attorney to Unemployment to try and stop Josephine Vergo from receiving unemployment. The union sent a letter to unemployment, and the Judge ruled against ACS, siding with the union. And so we were able to win unemployment benefits for Ms. Vergo.

5) Much more to come
The 3 authorities are now meeting with the company, and we know that they are feeling the heat in a major way. Both the company and the authorities are finding that in NY, CWA has a lot of power. They are also learning that we never give up. The company and authorities seem to be getting the fact that ACS/Xerox must drop their appeal, must keep the parachutte period, and must follow the law. Now that ACS/Xerox has gotten several complaints against them by the Labor Board, CWA will now begin the process of getting NYS to declare Xerox an "Irresponsible Contractor," which will prevent them from getting new contracts with the State until they resolve their labor dispute with CWA.

The ice is starting to crack. We are winning.

Questions? Call your local at 718-420-1102.

Region 29 of the NLRB has issued a complaint finding, among other things:
1) ACS transferred overtime work away from Tags to PRWT without bargaining with the union.
2) Implemented ABC without bargaining with the union.
3) Interrogated employees regarding their union affiliation.
4) Gave workers the impression that their union activities were under surveillance.
5) ACS "bypassed" the union when they forced people to sign the ABC form.
6) ACS refused to bargain with the union and refused to recognize the union as the exclusive bargaining representative
7) Refused to furnish the union with requested information so that the union could represent its employees.
8) ACS has been "interfering with, restraining and coercing its employees in the exercize of its rights."
9) ACS has "undermined the union's status" as the exclusive collective bargaining representative."

CWA, along with NYC Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio, is collecting "Stories" from New Yorkers who have had bad experiences with EZ pass Call Center. Specifically, we are looking for bad customer service stories having to do with getting incorrect bills, being double billed for tolls, etc.

If you have, or if you know of anyone who has had a bad customer experience, please click here to tell the story

**CLICK TO READ ABOUT ACS FIRINGS IN LABOR NOTES**

**CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR ACS GROUP ON FACEBOOK**

CLICK TO VIEW OUR EZ PASS WEBSITE FOR THE PUBLIC

August 7, 2009- The Federal Government has CERTIFIED CWA 1102 as the bargaining agent for all ACS workers. Congratulations to all ACS workers who faught hard to make this happen. We welcome all of our new brothers and sisters into our CWA 1102 family!!