National Labor Relations Board Agrees; FairPoint Acting In Good Faith

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Dec. 31, 2014 /TRENDINGGLOBALNEWS/ -- FairPoint Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: FRP), a leading communications provider, today announced that it had received the official ruling of Region 1 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rejecting entirely charges by the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and declaring the parties had in fact reached a good faith impasse and FairPoint lawfully implemented its final proposals.  

"We appreciate the fair and objective review of the facts that resulted in a favorable ruling at the Regional level," said Paul Sunu, Chief Executive Officer of FairPoint.  "As described in the NLRB ruling, FairPoint engaged in lawful bargaining designed to achieve our stated goals of cost savings and operational flexibility.  The ruling today is gratifying and confirms our position and honest belief that we have bargained in good faith.  As the unions appeal to the General Counsel of the NLRB, my expectation is that our case will continue to receive the fair and objective treatment that it did at the Regional level."  

"The unions have made allegations of bad faith bargaining their primary public rallying cry since before their decision to strike," Sunu continued. "In this ruling the NLRB has declared there is no merit to these claims. The ruling establishes that the unions' allegations were just propaganda.  The unions have campaigned with the media, elected officials, the communities of the region and their membership seeking to blame FairPoint for the ongoing labor dispute.  The time for all this spinning is over as the truth is now known.  It is high time that the unions address the real issues that should have been addressed well before any strike."  

From FairPoint's perspective, the ruling also gives the negotiations an opportunity to reset.  FairPoint's proposals are lawfully in place, but the company remains willing to listen to reasonable union proposals that both ensure FairPoint's ability to compete and are acceptable to the unions. 

"In the meantime, our top priority remains providing great service to northern New England," said Sunu.  "We appreciate our customers' patience and regret the disruptions and delays the unions' choices have caused, but our contingency efforts get stronger by the day.  We are developing more permanent solutions and have increased our recruitment and training efforts to attract additional qualified technicians and service providers to handle the work and help consistently deliver the level of service our customers expect."

About FairPoint Communications, Inc.

FairPoint Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: FRP) provides advanced data, voice and video technologies to single and multi-site businesses, public and private institutions, consumers, wireless companies and wholesale re-sellers in 17 states. Leveraging an owned, fiber-core Ethernet network - including more than 16,000 route miles of fiber in northern New England - FairPoint has the network coverage, scalable bandwidth and transport capacity to support enhanced applications, including the next generation of mobile and cloud-based communications, such as small cell wireless backhaul technology, voice over IP, data center colocation services, managed services and disaster recovery.  For more information, visit www.FairPoint.com. 

 source: prnewswire.com