Frontier, IBEW ratify New York customer service worker contract

Frontier Communications' customer service employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 503 union have ratified a new labor agreement.

The IBEW Local 503 union represents 42 sales and service technicians, building technicians and network engineering technicians who provide services to customers in the Monroe, N.Y., area.

Set to expire on Jan. 31, 2017, Frontier said the new contract will help it "remain competitive and enhance customer service while continuing to provide solid wages and benefits to its Southern Hudson Valley based union employees."

This latest pact follows a five-year agreement Frontier struck with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union covering over 1,100 employees in five Midwest states after seven months of negotiations last October. Earlier it ratified two contracts with the CWA union representing 200 of the carrier's employees in Pennsylvania.

Negotiations between telcos and unions have never been easy, something that fellow ILEC AT&T can attest to in its dealings with the IBEW and the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

After being faced with the possibility of a strike, AT&T (NYSE: T) ratified a four-year agreement with the CWA District 9 covering more than 17,000 wireline employees in California and Nevada in May 2013. The telco has made progress in ratifying similar contracts in a number of its regions, including the Midwest, Southeast, and the Southwest.

For more:
- see the release

Special report: The battle for union contracts: AT&T, Hawaiian Telcom, others hash out wireline benefits

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