Ending more than a year of contentious negotiations, union workers at Hawaiian Telcom have voted to ratify a five-year collective-bargaining agreement that will go into effect Jan. 1.
The agreement, announced by the company Friday, includes annual wage increases, a 401(k) matching program and a fixed-percentage employee contribution to health insurance premiums.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1357 represents about 700 of the 1,300 workers at Hawaiian Telcom, the state’s largest telephone company. The unionized workers include field technicians, line workers and call center representatives.
The union had been without a contract since Oct. 24, 2011, and subsequently rejected two contract offers by the company sandwiched around a two-day strike Nov. 10 and 11 during the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Waikiki.
Hawaiian Telcom imposed its "last, best and final" offer on Jan. 1 of this year, prompting the union to file charges with the National Labor Relations Board claiming the company failed to bargain in good faith. The NLRB rejected the claim as well as an appeal by the union, concluding that negotiators for the union and the company had reached an impasse after bargaining in good faith.
Scot Long, business manager and financial secretary of IBEW Local 1357, said he’s glad to finally get the contract finalized.
"To the CEO’s credit (CEO Eric Yeaman), they never stopped trying to resolve the issues," Long said. "It’s been a tough time for all of us. I think the agreement will help our members and their families for the next five years, and now they won’t have to worry about continously bargaining. We can just stay focused on the competition."
The agreement includes pay increases totaling 7.5 percent during the life of the contract that ends Dec. 31, 2017, according to a company filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. There will be increases of 1 percent each of the first two years, 1.5 percent the third year and 2 percent each of the last two years.
Long said the two sides plan to begin negotiating a new contract in May 2017.
Under additional terms of the contract, the union also agreed to begin paying 5 percent of medical premiums each of the years of the contract compared with the company previously paying all the employees’ premiums.
The company also will provide a match under its 401(k) plan of up to 10 percent of base salary while freezing the defined benefit pension plan. The company also will provide up to 13 weeks of fully paid sick leave annually.
The contract only applies to the company’s union employees.
"We’re very pleased to have achieved a long-term CBA that addresses the needs of employees and the company," Hawaiian Telcom spokesman Scott Simon said. "Hawaiian Telcom is fully committed to delivering customers the superior service they deserve, and today’s ratification affirms our companywide team’s readiness to compete and serve for years to come."
Hawaiian Telcom and union leadership jointly announced to employees the tentative agreement Dec. 14, and union leaders then met with members statewide to discuss the contract. A ratification vote was conducted by mail over the past two weeks.
The company’s stock fell Friday by 31 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $19.16 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The contract agreement was announced after the market closed.
