To all our Union Brothers and Sisters directed by Nokia:
June 4, 2020 marked the two year anniversary of the start of bargaining Installation Contract CWA-26. We reached a milestone. When June turned to July, we wiped away yet another line drawn in the sand by Nokia. Nokia’s only, rigid, unchanging bargaining demand is the elimination of Union representation for its workers in the United States of America.
Trees bend. Skyscrapers are designed to flex with the forces of wind and earthquakes. Relationships are built on the give and take of trust and compromise. Rigidity, without flexibility has left Nokia cornered and weak. A hard push is breaking Nokia’s bargaining position. A “get out…please, just get out” bargaining position has left Nokia no room for flexibility, compromise or even a different tactical approach that could resolve our differences.
Nokia’s unwavering, rigid position has also eliminated trust. Nokia showed their cards when they grabbed our pension funds and moved them into their management pension accounts. Nokia closed the Remote Integration Tests Center (RITC) in Dublin, Ohio without good faith bargaining, unilaterally eliminating 106 Union jobs in Ohio. Nokia unilaterally shifted all Installation job bidding and work assignment duties to their anti-union subsidiary, SAC Wireless.
We are now being told the efforts of our Bargaining Unit are ineffective and against our best interests. Nokia wants you to believe they are think they are a benevolent corporation, full of ethical values, just looking out for us. Why now? What would make us reach out an already bloody hand to pet this crazy-eyed dog one more time?
If and when Nokia officially makes their best, last and final offer, we can expect the same offer with no additional, financial incentive. If Nokia was serious about eliminating the Union, where is the honest, thoughtful offer based on financial damages as a result of their actions. Installers want to work. Many Installers do not have the time and age required to take an offer and with the specter of a pandemic hanging over the economy for the next two years, finding another job will be impractical at this time.
Finally, if you do meet the qualifications and you do take the offer, where is the guarantee that once the Bargaining Unit is out of the picture, your pension will not be moved into another of Nokia’s accounts and lost to the bad investing that has left their management’s pensions accounts underfunded? When our pensions are eliminated, I wouldn’t trust Nokia to even send a form letter apology.
Personally, I will not be taking the same offer. Nokia management has clearly acted to make Union Installation unwelcome and the job more difficult to perform. I don’t trust Nokia to preserve and protect my pension.
As the President of Local 4390, I plan to continue to fight and see to completion, the legal efforts we have initiated and will initiate to save our jobs and our American union representation at Nokia.
Art Plas, President
CWA Local 4390
