Oct. 4, 2002 – A federal mediator is being summoned to the Virgin Islands to help resolve the labor dispute that led the United Steelworkers Union to go on strike this week against Innovative Communication Corp.
Differences over non-wage financial matters led the union members to reject the company's latest contract offer on Tuesday, sending 310 telephone and cable-television workers to the picket lines on Wednesday, and again on Thursday and Friday.
Labor Commissioner Cecil Benjamin invited both sides to a Friday morning meeting in an attempt to settle their differences. "We've got to encourage both parties to continue negotiations and resolve their differences peacefully," he said late Friday afternoon.
Benjamin said as commissioner he is obligated by law to intervene in all labor disputes and take a pro-active approach to resolving labor-management problems.
At the one-hour meeting, Steelworkers international negotiator Randolph Allen said afterward, the two sides agreed to sit down with a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. "They're trying to get a mediator in here for early next week," he said.
The parties also agreed to a news blackout once the mediation talks start. Benjamin said he did not attend the meeting but sent a representative. Innovative's chief negotiator, Jeffrey Fraser, represented management by way of telephone conference call.
Meanwhile, striking workers maintained picket lines on St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John into the third day of the strike at business offices, motor pools and technical dispatch centers. On St. Thomas, organizers kept their spirits high by holding a Friday night rally at Tutu Park Mall that was attended by about 100 union members.
Despite agreement to honor the pending news blackout, a number of phone and cable-TV workers were willing to speak to reporters on condition of anonymity. Others let their protest signs speak on their behalf.
"No money for pensions, but money for election," one placard read. The bearer of the sign charged that Innovative has its spending priorities wrong, giving to political campaigns but not its own family of workers. "They've got money for senators, they've got money for the governor, but they've got no money for us," the individual said.
Spending decisions are so skewed, according to a technician of seven years, that workers often find themselves without the tools and supplies they need to do the job. "The company has declined drastically," the technician said. "The workers are being given no tools and no equipment."
Innovative's telephone and cable-TV service to subscribers has remained largely undisturbed throughout the three days of the strike.
Innovative spokesman Tom Dunn told a reporter on Friday night that there had been "extensive" sabotage on St. Thomas and St. Croix, but he could not definitively say those acts were carried out by striking workers.
Allen said he wasn't surprised to hear Dunn's allegations. "We're out here on strike, but we're going to get the blame, no matter what it is," he said.
Vandalism was reported against telephone and cable-TV distribution systems. Company executives reported cut television cable lines on St. Croix on Friday morning, saying they believed the acts had occurred overnight. On Thursday, Dunn had said that 156 telephone subscribers on St. Croix temporarily lost service after vandals cut phone lines.
In both cases, "service crews" were dispatched to repair the damage, according to Innovative Telephone releases. With technical service personnel on strike, it was not clear who constituted the crews. In the Friday statement, Innovative's president, Samuel Ebbesen, cited "disruption by vandalous and criminal behavior."
However, police on St. Croix said Friday morning that they had not received any reports of property damage from Innovative. "I haven't seen anything yet. I know that there has been some. I don't know if Innovative has reported the incidents," Deputy Police Chief Angel Santos said. "When the company sends out somebody to check it out, and it turns out to be vandalism, the company should generate a police report," he said. Throughout the three days of the strike, the picketing and protests by Steelworkers members have been largely peaceful, by all accounts. In some instances, police were called to some sites to make sure that the pickets did not interfere with customers and workers who decided to cross their lines.
Friday on St. Croix
Peaceful protests continued on St. Croix Friday. At the Mount Pleasant location, strikers walked along the Queen Mary Highway, also known as Centerline Road, waving their banners as motorists blew their horns in support.
Leroy "Cricket" Henley, a former employee retired for two years, said he could not see his brothers and sisters on the picket line and not join the cause. "They are right," Henley said. "How are we supposed to live on pittance?"
Myron Danielson, a cable splicer who also is a DJ, set his music equipment up on the roadside under a blue canopy tent to provide a spirit of merriment and peaceful protest. Two police squad cars were posted at the Mount Pleasant site: one at the company gate and another at the Centerline access road.
"Our spirits are high," one employee, who asked not to be identified, said, adding that residents and businesses have been supporting the workers' demand for better benefits.
Another employee said an altercation with police on Thursday was provoked by an officer who threatened the picketers, telling them to move before he got in his vehicle or they would be run over. "We were fighting for the road rights," the worker said. "During normal operation hours, we are told by Innovative management not to park on the road because it is private property and the company will not be liable. Now the police are asking us to move because it is public property."
In the Thursday incident, installer/repairman Trevor Wheeler said the union members were not aggressive toward the company or law-enforcement personnel. "We have people supporting us. We don't have guns or weapons, he said.
In fact, about 1:30 p.m. Friday, a motorist drove up with two gallon jugs of juice, and Cedric Armstrong of Armstrong's Homemade Ice Cream shared free desserts with the pickets. Across the street, the proprietors of Consumer Gas Station have been providing a cooler of ice and drinks for three days of the strike.
Wheeler said what fueled Thursday's blocking of the company's gate was the arrival of a local contractor bringing in workers to replace striking employees. During the last hurricane two years ago, he said, installers and repair personnel protested against Innovative hiring mainland and Puerto Rican contractors over local contractors such as Best Construction and Rotating Equipment.
Wheeler said the striking employees were upset on Thursday that Rotating Equipment, which they fought for then, was now bringing in employees to replace them. "We told Ms. Canton that she was a traitor for busting our strike line," he said, referring to the company owner.
On the back of a truck parked under a mahogany tree were pots of food and a tray of tarts to fuel the pickets, who danced, hopped and chanted their demands.
About 1:45 p.m., Ludvig Sealey, president of Steelworkers Local Union 8545, updated his membership on the results of the meeting held Friday morning. He told them the negotiating team had asked for a 72-hour gag order in which stakeholders would not discuss details of the negotiations with the news media. "We are not looking for trouble," Sealey said, "but they do have free speech. I have no control over my membership's mouths."
He said the company is still proposing a take-it-or-leave-it deal. "All the years we have negotiated,
we have never negotiated as a package," he told the union members who gathered around a pickup truck where he stood towering above them. "Negotiations have always been issue by issue, section by section." As for a take-it-or-leave it offer, he said, "We refuse to negotiate that way."
Saturday's notice from ICC
About 8:45 a.m. Saturday, a release from Innovative Telephone was sent to the media announcing that ICC's telephone and cable-tv business offices would be closed Saturday due to "constant customer complaints of harassment and concern of harm to their property."
The release from Thomas J. Dunn, Innovative Telephone public relations director, said the offices would resume regular operations on Monday. It also reminded customers that Innovative bills can be paid at local banks, through the mail or in business office drop boxes.
Karen D. Williams also contributed to this story.

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