Jim Gilton, a member of the bargaining committee for Communications Workers of America Local Union No. 6171, said employees in Lincoln County asked the company for better wages, improved healthcare premiums and job security and were rebuffed in a new proposed contract.
He has spent nearly every Thursday morning the last four months at a picket line on Mescalero Trail with fellow employees of Windstream.
Gilton said there was some compromise between the two parties during the negotiations; Where Windstream was proposing a change from a two-year contract to a four-year contract, the company was willing to offer a two and a half year contract though he said it would not agree to improving salary, vacation days or insurance premiums.
Gilton said there are a dozen employees in Ruidoso. He said including all of New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma there are over 500.
6171 Union President Travis Pirotte said the union reached a new proposed contract with Windstream after a previous one was voted down by 53%. Pirotte said it takes the approval of 51% of employees for a new contract to be approved.
A 2020 contract between the Union and Windstream Communication Southwest expired after a 2-year term in February. Pirotte said the Ruidoso employees, alongside Windstream employees in Oklahoma and Texas, wanted to see the new contract benefit employees.
The Alamogordo Daily News and the Ruidoso News contacted the corporate offices of Windstream and Senior Advisor for Corporate Affairs Scott Morris who released the following statement on behalf of Danny Ferguson, Kinetic president of field operations in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
"Windstream is pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the CWA that is fair and equitable to all parties."
The new agreement moves field service technician wage schedule increases forward to 2024, field service technicians will keep a 3.5% bonus, and field service technicians would receive progression increases every six months.
The previous unapproved contract stated field service technician would not see any progression in contracts until 2025.
The bargaining committee published a summary of the new agreement that detailed changes enacted in the new agreement.
"While we always reserve the right to bargain over all terms and conditions of employment, we the bargaining committee, believe this is the best deal we will get from the company. We think it’s a good deal, and we stronglyrecommend you vote for this contract," the summary read.
In the summary, a breakdown of wage increases and employee bonuses is included. Field service technicians will gain nearly $1,489 more than a cable service technician. Bonuses can be higher based on the amount of overtime worked by employees, the new agreement states.
"These wage increases are retroactive to March 1, 2024, meaning, field service technicians will be paid the increased wages for time already worked back to March 1," according to a release by Communications Workers of America Union 6171 representatives.
Gilton said he believed employees were underwhelmed by the changes, which he claimed did not address any of the demands being made by him and his colleagues.
"Pretty much the geographical area that we're in does not hold enough weight in the company's eyes as some of the bigger cities and the best thing we can hope for is to start including more people from other areas and grow our geographical area," Gilton said.
"If we keep pushing and saying no, they are going to start taking things away and we don't want them to start taking things away. We are not getting what we hoped for at all, we did not get any kind of substantial wage increase."
Gilton said the Union has been fighting for better contracts for over two years. That fight comes as jobs in New Mexico in the communications industry decline ― 2,100 lost overall since the beginning of the year, according to the March 2024 Labor Market Review published by the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.
"We're just guys that dig in ditches and climb poles. It's getting harder and harder to fight. Every single contract they (Windstream) are taking stuff away," Gilton said. "If you look at other contracts in other states, they have better benefits than us. Hell, they even tried to take away a sick day because we didn't use it."
Windstream employee Mark Navarro, who joined the Thursday picket lines, said his concern lies in the freezing of pensions and the cost of healthcare for retirees as negotiations continue.
"You get nothing of retirement, insurance could be a lot better. I got a bill from the doctor for an X-ray and it was a $600 bill and the insurance only paid like $60. If I would have known that I would not have gotten an X-ray done," Navarro said.
In 2019, Windstream declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy; that followed a 2016 merger between Windstream and Earthlink, one of many merger and acquisitions the company has undertaken. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported May 3, Windstream Holdings II, LLC would merge with Uniti Group Inc. in a $13.4 billion deal. Windstream is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Gilton wrote in a public post on the Mesa Plains Bargaining Group Facebook page that his expectations of the contract negotiations align with what other trade unions have received, including bonuses, strong apprenticeship programs and fair wages.
"They have better healthcare. They get increases in pay that align with inflation. They have pensions and they carry insurance with that pension once they’re retired. We don’t have anything close to that right now and you’re still trying to take away more."
The next contract cannot be bargained for until 2026.
"We just have to grow our geographical area for the next 24 months before the next contract. We feel like we tried to fight it as hard as we can, but we have to have a little faith in the union, I guess. It might be a longer game, it is a 30-month contract and hopefully there can be a better one after," Gilton said.
Juan Corral can be reached at JCorral@gannett.com or on twitter at @Juan36Corr.
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