July 16, 2010
With a Backlog of 1,000 Service Orders Waiting, Frontier Makes Employee Attendance at CEO Speeches Their Top Priority
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
While a backlog of 1,000 service orders had state phone customers waiting days for service, Frontier Communications required 1,300 of its employees to travel to Fairmont, Charleston or Beckley to attend speeches by company CEO Maggie Wilderotter.
After a year of negotiations and regulatory meetings, Frontier took over Verizon’s phone line operations in West Virginia, and 13 other states, on July 1. Since the transition, problems have been mounting, particularly with increasing numbers of outstanding, unresolved service orders.
Nine days after the formal switchover, Frontier declared an “emergency and long term service difficultiy.” Even with customer and business complaints rising, the priority last week for Frontier’s CEO was giving speeches to employees, not resolving the service order backlog.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) which represents Frontier employees took exception with the two days of speeches by Wilderotter saying such actions were counter to what Frontier promised and has been advertising.
"Requiring mandatory attendance at the CEO’s speeches isn’t exactly putting the customers first,” said CWA International Representative Elaine Harris. “Frontier’s ads say they want to communicate with the customers but I don’t know how Wilderotter did that in her two-day appearance here.
“If she wanted to really communicate with her customers, she would have gone out on the job with technicians to see first-hand the kinds of problems West Virginia phone customers are facing.”
Because of its proclaimed emergency situation, Frontier is attempting to hire retired phone company workers as temporary employees as well as independent contractors, moves that violate the agreement Frontier signed with the CWA.
“If you’re in a true emergency situation, you don’t take all of your employees off their jobs to attend corporate speeches,” said Harris. “Taking care of customers and ensuring quality phone service in West Virginia should come before corporate pep rallies.”
Before the acquisition of the phone operations went through, Frontier made a number of commitments to invest and improve quality of service in West Virginia.
"What I’ve seen so far is Wilderotter talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk,” said Harris.
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With a Backlog of 1,000 Service Orders Waiting, Frontier Makes Employee Attendance at CEO Speeches Their Top Priority
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
While a backlog of 1,000 service orders had state phone customers waiting days for service, Frontier Communications required 1,300 of its employees to travel to Fairmont, Charleston or Beckley to attend speeches by company CEO Maggie Wilderotter.
After a year of negotiations and regulatory meetings, Frontier took over Verizon’s phone line operations in West Virginia, and 13 other states, on July 1. Since the transition, problems have been mounting, particularly with increasing numbers of outstanding, unresolved service orders.
Nine days after the formal switchover, Frontier declared an “emergency and long term service difficultiy.” Even with customer and business complaints rising, the priority last week for Frontier’s CEO was giving speeches to employees, not resolving the service order backlog.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) which represents Frontier employees took exception with the two days of speeches by Wilderotter saying such actions were counter to what Frontier promised and has been advertising.
"Requiring mandatory attendance at the CEO’s speeches isn’t exactly putting the customers first,” said CWA International Representative Elaine Harris. “Frontier’s ads say they want to communicate with the customers but I don’t know how Wilderotter did that in her two-day appearance here.
“If she wanted to really communicate with her customers, she would have gone out on the job with technicians to see first-hand the kinds of problems West Virginia phone customers are facing.”
Because of its proclaimed emergency situation, Frontier is attempting to hire retired phone company workers as temporary employees as well as independent contractors, moves that violate the agreement Frontier signed with the CWA.
“If you’re in a true emergency situation, you don’t take all of your employees off their jobs to attend corporate speeches,” said Harris. “Taking care of customers and ensuring quality phone service in West Virginia should come before corporate pep rallies.”
Before the acquisition of the phone operations went through, Frontier made a number of commitments to invest and improve quality of service in West Virginia.
"What I’ve seen so far is Wilderotter talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk,” said Harris.
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