PORTLAND, Maine — FairPoint Communications and two unions representing striking workers at the company remain at loggerheads after a meeting with a federal mediator Tuesday morning in Boston.
Peter McLaughlin, a negotiator and leader at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said in a phone interview Tuesday that the meeting lasted about an hour and did not change anything in the ongoing contract dispute between the company and its workers.
“I’m not sure what their endgame is,” McLaughlin said.
Both sides said they were open to resuming negotiations before the meeting Tuesday but that they did not expect movement from either side.
McLaughlin said that during Tuesday’s meeting the union proposed isolating specific points of contention between the two parties but that proposal did not go anywhere.
The company issued a statement Tuesday afternoon stating they still view the situation as an impasse and that new proposals from the unions could bring them back to bargaining.
“We have told the mediators that when the unions are ready to make meaningful proposals, we will be prepared to meet with them,” the statement indicated.
Union officials said they had offered about $218 million in concessions during the bargaining process and that the proposal FairPoint imposed on workers after declaring the impasse sought to reduce its costs by about $700 million.
The key issues in the negotiations include bringing in non-union contract workers and converting to a health care plan that shifts part of the premiums to workers and has higher deductibles.
Angelynne Beaudry, a spokeswoman for FairPoint, said when the mediation meeting was announced last week that “no assumptions should be made” about what will come from the talks. The company issued a statement earlier in the month disputing an assertion by the union that the mediation meeting had any connection to difficulties maintaining service during an early November storm.
The company said on Nov. 5 that its call volume has been about 30 percent higher than in the past but that it has added new call centers and more representatives, some in other states, to handle call volumes from New England.
McLaughlin said no future bargaining sessions have been scheduled for the company and the two unions that represent more than 1,700 employees in New England, including about 800 in Maine.