MESSAGES

CORPORATE PROFIT SHARING AWARD 2007

The CPS Award for plan year 2007 is $777.00. The award will be pro-rated for part-time employees and those employees who participated for more than 3 months but less than 12 months in the plan year.

The award will be paid on March 6 or 7 based on employees' regular payroll distribution schedule.

IMPORTANT FMLA MOBILIZATION FOR VERIZON MEMBERS (07-03-2007)

It appears that Verizon is again violating the FMLA in a very significant way. CWA’s Legal department is collecting data that may be used as evidence in regard to the company’s mishandling of certain FMLA issues. Please provide the Local with detailed facts in reference to the following:

§ Retaliatory Changes to Attendance Control Plans,

§ Employees harmed solely because they failed to sign the medical release section of the form and are denied leave even though all other parts of the form have been completed correctly,

§ ARC Backlog Problems relating to Medical certifications for employees with chronic serious health conditions are not being processed in a timely manner or due to the backlog, supervisors may have incorrectly assumed that no word from ARC means that the leave is not FMLA covered and the employee is disciplined,

§ Denials for untimely requests during the administrative review process or because the employee did not ‘explain’ that the denial was due to no fault of his/her own error,

§ Pressure by Verizon on medical providers to change the certification through its’ “MD to MD review process”,

§ Company incentives being denied to FMLA certified employees

Please forward in writing detailed facts (names, dates, etc.) about specific cases in which these items have occurred. You may email your information to cwa2202@verizon.net , drop off at the Union Office or give to a Steward or Vice President. For additional info, click here for more detailed information.

Important Info About the Verizon Short-Term Disability Plan (09-13-06)

There are times when a Verizon employee’s absence due to illness or injury may be covered under the Short-term Disability plan.

When this happens, it is crucial that contact be made with MetLife on or before the eighth calendar day from the first day of your absence; Otherwise your pay may be interrupted.

In addition; if you return to work after a disability absence and are then absent again for any reason within 14 calendar days, you, of course, must call your supervisor and contact MetLife immediately in order to prevent interruption of pay. You may reach MetLife at (800) 638-4228.

Employees may now initiate and track claims from home using the internet by going to www.metlife.com/mybenefits, entering company name (Verizon Communications) to register for the service.

Important Information (10-5-05):

On September 1st Verizon made a unilateral change to remove several 100 pharmacies from the Medco plan network.

District 2 Vice President Catucci along with other districts and the IBEW notified Verizon that this was a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

We are happy to report that all pharmacies except Wal-Mart will be returned to the network plan. Previously, we were advised that Walgreens would no longer be included under the Medco network. Walgreens retail will continue to be included under the plan.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION RE: VERIZON BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS FOR 401(k) (FIDELITY INVESTMENTS)

We have received notice from several members regarding the possibility that their 401(k) beneficiary designations were deleted.

Through contact with Fidelity Investments, we have found that there was a problem recently where some employees in FBA and FGTE areas beneficiary information on file was lost.

Affected employees are asked to call Fidelity Investments on 1-888-457-9333 for more information.

Employees can also go on-line to check on or update beneficiary information by accessing Fidelity at www.netbenefits.fidelity.com .

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