PORTLAND, Maine — A team of federal mediators has been assigned to help FairPoint and two unions settle the contract dispute that’s led to an 11-week strike through the holiday season in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
The U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service announced Friday that representatives from the company and the two unions will meet for a second time at the behest of federal mediators.
“FMCS has assigned a team of experienced mediators to assist the parties in reaching mutually acceptable agreements to resolve the work stoppage,” Allison Beck, acting director of the federal agency, said in a news release Friday.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Communications Workers of America — representing about 1,700 workers on strike — said the meeting will take place on Sunday in Washington, D.C.
It comes after both sides have been bruised during the course of the 11 weeks.
The workers have gone without pay through the holiday season, endured strikes through the cold weather and dealt with interrupted or lost health care coverage. The company has faced increased service complaints after bringing on replacement workers and scrutiny of its 911 contract with Vermont. A panel in New Hampshire delayed a decision on a $13 million contract for phone and Internet service in that state.
A union representative called the mediation meeting coming Sunday a “positive step.”
“We appreciate the federal mediator’s work to bring the two sides together,” said Peter McLaughlin, a lead negotiator for the IBEW in Maine.
Angelynne Amores Beaudry, spokeswoman for FairPoint, said the meeting “reflects the normal process” followed by the agency and, as with the previous mediator meeting, said the company seeks some concessions from the unions in the direction of its last offer, which the company imposed on the employees Aug. 28.
“Our proposals ensure the company’s ability to compete,” Beaudry said. “We hope the unions are prepared to make such proposals. The ball is in the unions’ court.”
The unions said in a statement Friday that the process requires both sides to keep any information about the negotiations confidential after they begin on Sunday.
A spokesman for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service referred any questions to the company and the unions.
The agency’s mission is to help both parties reach an agreement. According to its website, it does not have a uniform policy requiring confidentiality from both sides in the negotiation and sometimes results in delegating media contact about the dispute to the federal mediator.
“Mediators understand the sensitivity of negotiations. They may ask the parties to refrain from making any statements to the news media while the talks are in progress, or at least, to avoid trying to negotiate in the press,” the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service website states. “At other times, the parties may ask the mediator to handle the press contact. The mediator can assess the impact of the negotiations on a community and decide what to say and what not to say.”
Both parties have alerted northern New England reporters at various points in the negotiation process, starting before the unions called a strike.
The parties have not restarted talks since a meeting with a federal mediator Nov. 18, which did not lead to any breakthroughs in the contentious contract dispute over outsourcing, benefits and the negotiation process itself.
The unions filed six complaints about FairPoint’s negotiation strategies this year, losing each but appealing some of those complaints to a national board.
The strike began Oct. 17, 2014, and involves about 800 FairPoint employees in Maine.