ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 11, 1996 TAG: 9612110017
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
The union representing operators at a directory-assistance center in Clifton Forge accused the company Tuesday of illegally hiring operators from a temporary employment service.
The United Paperworkers International Union said CFW Information Services Inc. was obligated to fill all operator jobs with company employees who would be represented by the plant's 85-person operator union.
The union asked the National Labor Relations Board office in Winston-Salem, N.C., to investigate. The union's allegation also accuses CFW - a unit of CFW Communications Co. of Waynesboro - of refusing to bargain in good faith and of intimidating workers.
Glenn Anglin, a local representative of the international office of the union, called CFW "almost like a sweat shop." He said he used the term because operators are paid $6 to $7 hourly, work some split shifts and endure stress made worse by unannounced monitoring by supervisors.
The dispute pits an international union against one of the Alleghany Highlands' newest large employers.
CFW built the Clifton Forge center and opened it in March 1995. Operators working there find numbers for residents and businesses in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., under an agreement with AT&T.
In December 1995, employees narrowly voted to have the union represent them in collective bargaining talks with the company.
Negotiations that began in March have not produced an initial contract. Workers voted down one proposal in August.
Recently, the company brought in three outside operators and it hopes to add more, said Steve Carpenter, the CFW facility's personnel director. The goal is to fill night and weekend shifts and split-shifts that union members have said they dislike, he said.
It is these employees who raised an issue for the union.
Contrary to the union's charge, however, the outside operators are not temporary employees, said an official at the company which supplied them. Borg-Warner Contract Staffing, the Parsippany, N.J., has a practice of supplying workers under contracts for at least a year, said Joe Arwady, vice president of the staffing unit.
"We believe the charges are frivolous," said CFW's Carpenter.
The charges are a way to distract attention from the union's inability to negotiate a contract acceptable to workers, Carpenter said.
Anglin said the two sides were close on an agreement on wages and had come to terms on a number of other issues during nine months of negotiations. But then, he said, the company thwarted progress with its plan to use outside operators.Next year, the Clifton Forge center also will receive calls from Delaware and New Jersey, requiring 80 more operators. If outside operators get those positions, the union and non-union work force would be about the same size.
"Where's your bargaining power if you allow half of the facility to be manned by people that you don't even represent?" Anglin said.
The NLRB first will decide if the charges merit its attention. The agency could take several months to make a decision.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB