Comcast Members Win Contract
In New Jersey

September 2004 IBEW Journal

What happens when Comcast, a corporation with deep pockets and a history of hostility to unions, stonewalls in contract negotiations with a bargaining unit of 88 cable TV technicians and clerical workers in a small New Jersey city?

If you are members of IBEW Local 827 in Pleasantville, located only five miles from glitzy Atlantic City, you make so much noise that the surrounding populace would swear that you have 8,888 members. You take your issues with Comcast to the companys customers, to the news media and even to the Comcasts headquarters in the Philadelphia, with eye-catching, creative tactics. You construct a flashy "unofficial" web site, paid for by membership contributions, to keep each other informed and reach out for support. You hold informational picket lines and rallies with a simple theme"Were Not Gonna Take It!" And you win.

On July 6, members of Local 827 ratified a new contract with Comcast that includes an 11.4 percent wage increase over 41 months and critical protections against sub-contracting when the company moves into new telephony technologies like voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP).

Dave Kubert, vice president of Local 827, who led negotiations, credits the membership of the local for the contract victory. "Comcast," he says, "is a tough company to bargain with, but the members stood together and fought." Kubert also commends Rich Spieler, Local 827s business agent for southern New Jersey, for doing a "great job" in supporting the internal organizing of the membership.

Local 827 opened discussions with Comcast in April on the contract that was due to expire on May 31. The company demanded that the union agree to the elimination of a sick day bonus that was equivalent to 2.7 percent of each members yearly pay and a 6 percent salary increase over 3 years.

That outraged members of the local, who had worked without a significant raise over the previous three years, and who make roughly $7 per hour less than technicians with competing companies. Their bitterness was stoked by financial reports showing that CEO Brian Roberts and his father, Comcast founder Ralph Roberts, took home a combined $20.3 million in 2003 with an additional $34.2 million in exercised stock options.

While Comcast dug in its heels, and negotiators agreed to contract extensions, the locals membership got busy. Knowing, first-hand, that Comcast had a dreadful record of customer service, they took their issues to surrounding towns of Longport, Margate, Ventnor and Ocean City in several motorcades. Their www.local827.net web site urged customers to write to Comcast asking them to bargain in good faith with the IBEW.

Local 827 had a deep well of union support to draw from. Vice President Kubert says: "Atlantic City is a union town. This helped us to win our contract." Joining the informational picket lines were Local 827 members from Verizon and from Comcast in Toms River, New Jersey, Teamsters from UPS and members of the Atlantic City-Cape May Central Labor Council, including IBEW Locals 351 and 210 and the Pleasantville Police Department.

The new contract with Comcast includes an $850 signing bonus and an enhanced 401(k) retirement plan that includes a 100 percent match by Comcast. Each bargaining unit member will receive 100 stock options. Leave time is expanded from six months to one year for on-job injuries and vacation and bereavement pay are also improved.

Currently Comcast retirees receive no company medical benefits. The contract includes language requiring the company to hold discussions with the local concerning an offer of such benefits to Pleasantville workers if Comcast covers any employees in any state in the future.