ANNALS OF LABOR Did Carcieri give an edge to Verizon? BY BRIAN C. JONES

A union representing more than 1000 Rhode Island telephone workers is charging that Governor Donald L. Carcieri sided with management during recently concluded contract negotiations over the summer. Carcieri, according to the union, issued an executive order that allowed telephone giant Verizon to assign workers unlimited overtime work — and thus perform as much work as possible before a possible strike.

If there had been a walkout, according to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 2323, there would have been that much less work for strike replacement and management employees. "This executive order was extremely hurtful from our perspective, using the power of the state to give Verizon an upper hand — not that we let them," says William C. McGowan, business manager of Local 2323. "It was just outrageous."

But Barbara Trainor, a spokeswoman for Carcieri, says the order was issued because Verizon cited a backlog of rainy weather-related problems for its customers — not because of the labor negotiations. "The governor respects the integrity of the collective bargaining process between Verizon and the IBEW," she says, "and he is not going get involved in that."

Trainor says Carcieri’s order was similar to one he issued last winter when heavy snow required overtime driving by storm crews. This time, the executive order said: " . . . over the past several weeks continued rainy conditions have caused Rhode Island to experience numerous communications service interruptions, and restoration of communications service has not been completed fully."

But McGowan says no other utility companies, such as Cox Communications, which provides telephone as well as cable TV service, were named in the order — just Verizon. The union’s lawyer, Marc B. Gursky, says that "it seems pretty transparent" to him that Verizon approached the governor and said that it wanted people to work overtime in advance of a strike or lockout.

The order allowed the state to override federal rules restricting commercial drivers from being on the road more than 60 hours in a week without a day off. McGowan says many workers ended up putting in 70 to 80-hour weeks.

McGowan is upset by the governor’s action because one of the union’s goals was to prevent the phone company from cutting well-paid union jobs in Rhode Island, and he thought Carcieri would have supported the union’s efforts, given the governor’s stated goals. "The IBEW and the CWA [Communications Workers of America] were standing up to Verizon to make sure we keep jobs in the home town," McGowan says. "And you get Governor Carcieri, who says he wants to grow good-paying jobs and good benefits in Rhode Island, and he’s working against me and my union."

Was the phone company hurt by rainfall? Verizon fell short of a series of state-mandated "service quality standards" for responding to repair and installation requests during June and July, according to Terrence Mercer, a spokesman for the state Division of Public Utilities and Carriers. Mercer referred a reporter to Verizon for further details, but company officials were not immediately available.

National Weather Service records show that Rhode Island had two inches more rainfall in June than the average 3.4 inches. July rainfall was only slightly more than normal. On the day when Carcieri signed his executive order, August 8, a storm dumped 2.5 inches on the state. As of the end of August, the Weather Service said the state had about nine percent more precipitation than usual for the first eight months of 2003 — about 33.19 inches, instead of the normal 30.52.

Local 2323’s contract with Verizon expired August 2, but the union held off on striking because of progress in negotiations, which concluded September 4, with a tentative five-year contract that, the union says, protects existing jobs, provides more than a 10 percent total wage hike, and continues premium-free health insurance for workers. Even though the bargaining has ended, McGowan says the IBEW is exploring possible legal action to dispute Carcieri’s emergency executive order, because the union wants to prevent the same thing from happening again.