IBEW 103 Contract Victory at DirecTV
After more than a year of negotiations, installation technicians at DirecTV finally have reached a first contract agreement with DirecTV/MultiBand. Organizing Roundtable Chair Bill Corley described the new agreement which establishes a forty hour / five day work week which, amazingly, was a sticking point in negotiations, as well as an hourly rate of pay instead of the piece-work system that previously paid the technicians a fixed rate per installation, regardless of the hours worked. Often, a technician would drive to a home and spend 3-4 hours on an install, only to find out that an obstacle, such as a tree, was blocking the satellite signal. Prior to the contract agreement, the worker would be forced to go without compensation for those hours worked because the installation was not complete. Now, workers will be compensated at a fair hourly rate of $22 - $25 per hour.
IBEW Local 103 is only the third union nationwide to have won a contract for installation technicians for DirecTV and is the only so far to establish an hourly rate of pay, rather than a piece-work system. There are currently six class-action lawsuits filed by workers against DirecTV installation contractors.
Local 103 and organizer Bill Corley deserve great credit for winning a fair contract at a company still determined to run satellite sweatshops elsewhere in the country.
