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FairPoint Northern New England Labor Unions Ratify Collective Bargaining AgreementsMANCHESTER, N.H., Feb. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- FairPoint Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: FRP), a leading communications provider, announced that today, Sunday, February 22, 2015, the membership of the IBEW, T-9 Council and the Communications Workers of America, Local 1400 ratified the tentative collective bargaining agreements between FairPoint and the labor unions. "We are glad that the unions have ratified these agreements that provide excellent pay and benefits while allowing FairPoint to rationalize its employee costs to position the company to compete and serve the customers and communities of northern New England," said Paul Sunu, Chief Executive Officer of FairPoint. "These agreements also allow our 1,700 union-represented employees to return to work and focus on our collective goal of serving our customers with excellence. While the negotiations were often challenging, congratulations are in order for both negotiating teams for forging what appears to be win-win agreements. I would also like to thank the numerous public officials for their guidance and support, publicly and privately, that helped lead to these agreements." Highlights of the collective bargaining agreements are as follows:
"I would like to personally thank our management team for their extraordinary efforts during the strike, but we understand that this dispute, combined with historic winter weather, has caused service disruption for some of our valued customers, and we appreciate the public's patience during this time. Our near-term plan is to utilize our returning unionized workforce in conjunction with the contractors we have in the region to quickly address any remaining service and installation issues and resume normal operations as soon as possible." "We are committed to the region and are proud to continue our involvement with community causes that help make northern New England a great place to work and live. As a small part of that commitment, I am pleased to announce the company is making a $10,000 contribution in the name of our entire workforce to the United Way of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont," Sunu concluded. Estimates of the impact of the agreements on the company's financial statements will be provided when the company releases 2014 fourth quarter and full year earnings in early March. 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. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fairpoint-northern-new-england-labor-unions-ratify-collective-bargaining-agreements-300039449.html SOURCE FairPoint Communications, Inc. |