Credit: Courtesy

Credit: Courtesy

Local Frontier Communications employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) labor union are in the process of voting on whether to authorize a worker’s strike, in protest of what they characterize as a failure of their employer to deliver on a fair labor contract.

“Frontier’s broken systems and broken processes have led to broken promises,” a message on the union’s website reads. “Through it all, we the members of IBEW Local Union 824 have stuck together, because all we have is each other.”

The IBEW Local 824, which represents about 1,300 Frontier workers locally, is currently negotiating a new contract with Frontier Communications, a Connecticut-based telecommunications company. The union’s current contract is set to expire on April 16. Union members have until Thursday morning, April 15, to deliver their vote on the strike authorization.

For months, Tampa Frontier workers with the union—including technicians, customer service representatives, dispatchers, and sales agents—have voiced concerns about their contract negotiations with the telecom giant, which serves an estimated 4.1 million customers in 29 states and employs roughly 17,400 workers nationwide.

Keith LaPlant, the president of the IBEW Local 824, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay there are two main grievances workers have with Frontier’s contract proposal: An elimination of retiree healthcare—which they currently receive with their existing contract—and the diminishment of workers’ 401k.

“[Our technicians] dig holes, they go into attics, they [see] a lifetime of injuries,” LePlant said, while adding that he wants these benefits to be available to all of their workers—many of whom, he says, often give the best years of their lives to the company.

In the event that Frontier refuses to budge, the union is considering a call for a worker’s strike, to send a message to Frontier that can’t be ignored.

As of this week, the union has initiated a strike authorization process. Through this, each worker with the union receives a ballot to vote—in this case, by mail—on whether they support the union calling for a strike, should they be unable to negotiate a fair bargaining agreement with Frontier.

According to LaPlant, the local IBEW has only had one strike in its history—in 1963. Since 1997, when LaPlant came to the union, he says they’ve only authorized strikes about three times. None, however, actually materialized. “Voting to strike and striking are two different things,” he says, sharing that, in the past, they’ve generally gone back to the bargaining table to continue negotiating with the company.

Workers with the IBEW Local 824 said even considering a workers’ strike—considered fairly rare—has been a long time coming.

“We have stuck with the company since the very beginning,” LePlant told CL, describing a transition period in 2016, during which time Frontier Communications took over the Florida region from Verizon after acquiring its wireless assets. In the beginning, LePlant says the transition was “rocky,” yet maintains that workers have stood by Frontier and have worked to retain and secure new customers for the company.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year, LePlant says that local Frontier workers capable of working from home—their “inside people,” he says—adapted to a remote working environment. But for their technicians, who venture outdoors, into buildings, and into the homes of Frontier customers, there was little change. They continued business as usual.

“As essential workers, we are required to enter customers’ dwellings and places of business to keep people connected during this deadly pandemic,” Norwood Orrick, a field technician for Frontier and IBEW 824 member told CL in February. “The boss says we don’t have to go inside anywhere we don’t feel safe. But my union gives me the actual power to work safely without fear of repercussions.”

Although no workers with the union have been laid off or downgraded during the pandemic, LePlant said Frontier’s financial issues and the pandemic have placed some strain on Frontier’s essential workers and union contract negotiations.

As previously reported by CL, Frontier Communications filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy last April, with the intention of restructuring their company. Their restructuring plan—which involved appointing a new CEO, effective last month—has earned mixed responses from the likes of the IBEW and the Communications Workers of America (CWA)—two labor unions that represent Frontier workers in states across the country, including workers in California, Connecticut, and Georgia.

Under their restructuring plan, Frontier will form a new holding company, make certain technological improvements, but maintain its current workforce of electricians and customer service representatives. Through restructuring, the company aims to eliminate over $10 billion in debt obligations and $1 million in annual interest payments.

According to LePlant, the bankruptcy “really slowed down” the union’s bargaining process for the new contract with Frontier, which began in 2019. “When the bankruptcy came, Frontier kind of wanted to put a halt on that,” LePlant told CL—at least until the company got its finances together.

Even so, the impact of the bankruptcy was not felt equally within the company. Within months after filing for bankruptcy, Frontier managed to score a total $63 million in bonuses for their executives. The first round of bonuses, amounting to nearly $38 million in May, was deemed in line with industry standards, according to the New York judge who signed off on the bonuses. A second round of $25 million in bonuses were later approved in July, despite opposition from organized labor and the U.S. Trustee’s Office.


This, coupled with workers’ concerns about their new contract, earned a strong reaction from workers. Outside of this year’s Super Bowl LV at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, the union staged an impressively well-attended picket across the street at Al Lopez Park’s Cancer Survivors Plaza to demand a fair contract and respect for Frontier employees.

“Your bargaining committee, staff, and officers at the Union hall respectfully request your assistance in our effort to secure a fair contract now,” the union posted on its Facebook page, about a week prior to the annual championship game. “Our plan is for an informational picket on the day of the Super Bowl to send a clear message to Frontier and their corporate partners like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Raymond James Stadium that taking away retirement benefits from our essential workers, including medical is simply not acceptable.”

In response, an estimated 500 Frontier workers and community members came out to support workers’ demands on Super Bowl Sunday, holding signs and waving at cars driving towards Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, which seated about 25,000 fans and 30,000 cut-outs for the annual championship this year.

“It was just a great show of solidarity,” LePlant said, when asked about what the turnout meant to workers with the union. “And it just shows you that we have each other’s back.”

Last Saturday, workers with the union returned to Al Lopez Park to hold a sign-waving event outside of Wrestlemania 2021, to uplift their demand for a fair contract with Frontier. Union members with the IBEW Local 824 have until Thursday morning, April 15, to deliver their vote on the strike authorization, should Frontier fail to budge on retaining their 401k and full retirement benefits in the new contract proposal.

Although different for public employees, unionized workers with Frontier have the right to strike under Florida law as long as the strike is authorized—that is, supported—by the majority of workers in the union.

When contacted for comment, Senior Vice President of the Frontier South Region Melanie Williams confirmed that Frontier was actively negotiating with the local union.  “We value our relationship with the Union and appreciate the work our employees do to serve our customers,” Williams told CL in an emailed statement. “As we continue in this process, we remain committed to a resolution that is both fair to our employees and also addresses the needs of our business and marketplace realities.”

When asked about the local union’s concerns, Williams confirmed that Frontier is “proposing some changes” within the new contract that allows the company to “better manage escalating benefits costs.”

“We look forward to continuing to move this process forward, and to strengthening the foundation for providing good jobs into the future,” Williams added.

In the meantime, the local union plans to continue advocating for a contract that retains their workers’ retirement benefits and 401k.

“Our stance is very simple,” LaPlant told CL. “All we're asking for is to keep what we already have. Nothing more.”

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This article appears in Apr 15-22, 2021.

McKenna Schueler is a freelance journalist based in Tampa, Florida. She regularly writes about labor, politics, policing, and behavioral health. You can find her on Twitter at @SheCarriesOn and send news...