While negotiators for Verizon Communications and its workers resumed bargaining yesterday over crucial elements like health benefits and job security, the two sides also swapped accusations over the appropriate use of the phrase, ÿCan you hear me now?ÿþþAt the bargaining table, the negotiators, who took a break over the weekend, discussed the central issues with a federal mediator in Washington yesterday, the 17th day without a contract. But in court, a sideshow emerged, touched off by the use, or possible misuse, of a Verizon Wireless advertising slogan.þþVerizon Wireless, the cellphone company, in which Verizon holds a majority stake, asserted in court papers filed late on Monday that union officials violated the company's trademark by using the ÿCan you hear me now?ÿ phrase last week during a conference call with journalists. In turn, the Communications Workers of America, one of the two unions representing Verizon workers, filed a lawsuit in federal court yesterday, accusing two Verizon executives of violating federal wiretap rules by listening to the conference call.þþThe legal maneuvering came as the two sides reportedly made little progress on the core labor matters. And it struck some labor experts as petty sniping from people not in the middle of the core discussions. ÿIt's sort of lame,ÿ said Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University. ÿThe people at the real center are busy negotiating. The rest are just hanging around, with energy to burn.ÿþþUnion officials said they thought a settlement was not imminent and could take not just weeks, but months, to achieve.þþÿThese dueling lawsuits did not create a great context today for moving forward,ÿ said Bob Master, a spokesman for the Communications Workers of America.þþBut the character of the discussions is more collegial than in 2000, when Verizon's unions struck for 18 days, disrupting service in parts of the 13 East Coast and Mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia where the work force is concentrated.þþThis year, the Communications Workers and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — representing 78,000 operators and technicians — planned a walkout when their contract expired on Aug. 2. But the unions said they had postponed a strike because they thought the earlier negotiations had been fruitful and because the company had prepared well for a strike by hiring replacement workers.þþAgainst this background, the two sides seemed to temporarily assume the roles of the comedian Al Franken and the Fox News Network, which recently accused Mr. Franken of improperly using its slogan ÿfair and balanced.ÿ But neither the union nor the company was laughing.þþUnion officials accused Verizon Wireless of being petty. Verizon Wireless counteraccused that the union was improperly using a brand name into which the company had invested millions of dollars. It is not the first time the companies have had this dispute.þþThe issue dates to November, when Verizon Wireless accused the Communications Workers of improperly using the ÿCan you hear me now?ÿ phrase. The company uses that phrase in television, print and radio marketing to promote the clarity of its wireless connections.þþThe company, in a lawsuit filed in November in Federal District Court in New Jersey, said the union had infringed its trademark by using the phrase in an antilayoff campaign directed at Verizon Communications. The union used the phrase to indicate that its campaign had received the company's attention.þþThe lawsuit is still pending. The company said the two sides reached an interim agreement in December in which union officials said they would not use the phrase unless they first gave 30 days notice.þþLast week, union officials held a conference call with journalists to announce a plan to boycott Verizon service and encourage its customers to switch to AT&T. On that call, Larry Cohen, the vice president of the C.W.A., said he thought the so-called carrier switch campaign would get Verizon's attention. In so doing, he used the phrase ÿCan you hear us now,ÿ labor officials said.þþJim Gerace, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, said organized labor had also violated the agreement by hiring a plane to carry an advertisement over the New Jersey shoreline that said, ÿHey Babbio: Can you hear us now?ÿ Lawrence T. Babbio Jr. is the vice chairman and president of Verizon Communications.þþThe union was leveling its own accusations. In a lawsuit filed yesterday, the C.W.A. said that two Verizon executives had trespassed on the proprietary call with journalists. The union said it had given the number for the call to 25 journalists and that somehow the company had obtained the number and listened in.þþJeff Miller, a spokesman for the Communications Workers, did not dispute that one of its officials used the phrase ÿCan you hear us now?ÿ But he said that labor officials thought their agreement would not have covered the official's statement on the conference call.þþÿThe agreement was not meant to bar free speech,ÿ he said. þþ
Source: NY Times
