The Latest Cox- RI Plant Casualty

A Sunday to Wednesday 2nd shift RI plant tech was recently terminated by HR & his department director for not returning to work from a medical leave of absence past his 90 day company policy. This hardworking model employee will now have to endure the stresses of meeting his financial obligations while unemployed and seriously ill with heart problems. He was under the care of heart specialists, couldn’t control how long his illness lasted and consistently kept in contact with his employer to keep them updated.

The week he was due back his department director was on vacation and no one else would fill the gap and help this man out, now the rumor mill has it that management is trying hard to invent issues to justify terminating our friend and colleague. Employed at Cox for the last 6 years, he did not deserve the lack of loyalty and compassion that he received from his employer. Let’s all pay close attention to this story and hope we will never suffer such an illness as Cox would NOT hesitate to hand us the same fate. One would only wonder if this sort of thing would happen if a UNION was in.

Does Cox realize where the employees previously on the fence are now? Do they wonder how many anti(s) they’ve converted over? Sign those cards, vote in the 2323 and protect yourselves. Otherwise this sort of immoral, selfish and borderline illegal behavior will only continue in this so-called “best place to work in RI”.

P.S. Take a stance and speak loud and clear by boycotting the upcoming by appointment only so-called pension workshops, we have no pension.

Dear Mr. Duffy, WOW... What an awesome job you folks seem to be doing in Connecticut, we are SO looking forward to this long overdue movement to come to Rhode Island. You have given us that " light at the end of the tunnel" mentality. Even though we expect that Cox will put up quite a fight, we all recognize that they sort of brought it on themselves and have been perfecting their poor management skills for some time know. At this point it is obviously very difficult to know with any certainty exactly how many of us are really looking forward to the representation of the IBEW 2323 because of the illegal way in which our employer chooses to "run the ship" with their threats and all but it is a known fact that we definitely come in large numbers. We came across one of your postings on the GOTUNION.COM site recently in which you refer to having some RI employees that are assisting you, we are not any of these common-sense individules as this is our firt contact with you and we hope you realize that we too are here to assist. Please feel free to post anything you see fit on the site as we continue to diligently soften the battlefield for your long awaited arrival which we hope will be in the very near future. Sincerely and respectfully, Cox communications- Rhode Island

COX COMMUNICATIONS has achieved a disturbing milestone when high ranking New England leadership officials such as Dave Colli and Richard Warhurst publicly humiliate and degrade their loyal and dedicated workforce in making comments such as:

"You should feel privileged to work here, your job is your bonus" Richard Warhurst "So you think you deserve better pay and benefits? Lets face it guys, you're already overpaid.... you're only COAX TECHS" Dave Colli "There isn't much science to what you guys do, I could train a monkey to do your job" Dave Colli Relative to employee relations these are the types of examples being set for the countless managers, supervisors and leads in this and other Cox systems and are unfortunately coming from the very top! Cox employees' recent letter to the media, "Atlanta, OSHA & the NLRB" Recently, a news story was published by Ms. Mary Godin of the Record-Journal in Connecticut and is featured in the "Media coverage" page of www.gotunion.com It speaks of an ongoing campaign involving a larger percentage of Telecommunications workers employed by the giant Cox Communications and their active struggle to exercise their legal right in obtaining the representation of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) 2323, citing their employer's immoral, unethical and unjust cuts in pay and benefits despite the millions of dollars that Cox profits on a yearly basis. Some employees also add that it is Cox's illegal behaviors of workplace intimidation, harassment and threats of taking away yet more benefits if these workers were to unite that has absolutely forced them to solicit the IBEW 2323 and not any other reason, contrary to what Cox may have stated. It is an unfortunate but well known fact that since Cox Communications shocked everyone with a buyout of all of its employee's shares and privatized the company a few years ago, the quality of life of these employees has progressively declined. As the cost of living skyrockets from year to year, they find themselves rearded with cuts in pay and or benefits. The Rhode Island based employees, a much larger force than that of Connecticut, also are gearing up to launch a campaign of their own in soliciting the representation of the IBEW 2323 along with preparing to secretly vote on pursuing plans of filing official complaints of labor law violations at Cox Communications with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The overwhelming consensus within this loyal and dedicated workforce is that the regional management is out of control. Most employees would rather solve these differences with the company they loyally served in aquiring and rebuilding the entire state of Rhode Island as opposed to involving a third party but feel that approaching management often brands them as "disgruntled employees" and almost always guarantees them an unjust and untimely termination. The installers and technicians whose jobs are more physically demanding, while exposed to the elements, are most often in every case terminated upon their return to work should they suffer some sort of work related injury. Cox may continue to counter with its claims of a few "disgruntled employees", it may cite it's so-called open door policy in reguards to issue resolving and perhaps may even speak to the fact that it was recently voted (on paper) as the "best place to work in RI". However, while it dedicates revenue and manpower in postponing the inevitable, it fails to realize that history is written by the winner but failure often tells us more. Sincerely, "Digital Max"