FairPoint Cuts Healthcare

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Created on Tuesday, 04 November 2014 17:57

Written by Victoria Nicoletta

AROUND THE NEK - Employees of the FairPoint Communications are still on strike a little over two weeks after it first began. Despite it's workers being on strike, the company still will not budge when it comes to drawing up the new contract.

This all comes from events that have taken place over the last six years. In the past, FairPoint executives led the company into a merger, followed by a bankruptcy that brought about cuts in the work place of approximately 22%. The company also decided to outsource jobs in communities throughout New England.

There are around 3,200 people working for FairPoint today. Of those 3,200 employees, approximately two-thirds of them are covered by collective bargaining agreements, because they are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA). However, their contract expired on Aug. 2, 2014. In reaction to FairPoint's denial to work with their workers to come up with a new contract, IBEW and CWA created "Fairness@FairPoint" to help employees come together to pursue a fair deal.

Instead of coming up with a new contract, the company decided to get rid of the strikers' health coverage as a whole. The employees, who are on strike, were made aware that the company would cut off their health insurance after Oct. 31 if they did not go back to work. Now that their health coverage has been cut off, strikers will need to join their spouse's health insurance or find new insurance all together.

Derek Blankenship, a service tech. with FairPoint Communications, explained how this experience is affecting the strikers. "It's unfortunate for a lot of families. It's going to get extremely expensive for them to pay for health insurance. And a lot of people probably won't be able to at this point. It's kind of frightening for a lot of the younger families especially."

Cobra, Marketplace, and Vermont Health Connect are three options of health insurance that the employees are currently considering. People who are already insured by Cobra will be able to freely drop that insurance company, in order to get a plan through Health Connect during open enrollment.

Open enrollment for Vermont Health Connect will begin next week on Nov. 15th. and will run until Feb. 15th. After enrollment, users will then be determined whether or not they are eligible for financial help and cost sharing reductions. Anyone who is interested in applying for Vermont Health Connect will be able to do so online or over the phone.

In a press conference held last week, Senator Bernie Sanders asked FairPoint Communications to try negotiating the contract with their employees again.