Once Schurz Communications takes over, Burlington Telecom employees won’t receive the same sweet benefits package they currently enjoy as city workers.
Each staff member will lose at least 12 — and up to 17 — days off annually, according to BT spokesperson Abbie Tykocki. The retirement benefits and health care offerings from Schurz are also less generous than employees’ current options from the city of Burlington, she said.
During the lengthy sales process last year, “we all had felt or had heard that the benefits [would be] comparable,” Tykocki said. In retrospect, she acknowledged, “what the definition of comparable is up for debate.” Currently, 24 of BT’s full-time 26 employees get benefits through their jobs, she said.
The city offers a pension plan and 24 days off, including federal holidays, as well as a lengthy list of discounts and other perks.
BT employees will submit a side-by-side comparison of the benefits packages to the Burlington City Council next Monday, Tykocki said. Support from the council may encourage Schurz to up its offerings.
CEO Todd Schurz defended his company’s benefits options, and said that the offerings are similar to other private companies. Schurz employees generally end up satisfied — the “average tenure in our company is over 12 years,” he said. Nonetheless, he called the transition from publicly owned to private “tricky.”
A Schurz human resources employee would sit down individually with each BT worker to clear up misunderstandings and address specifics for each employee, he said. For now, “there isn’t sufficient clarity,” he admitted.
The council sold the city telecom to the Indiana media company last year, though the deal won’t be sealed until the state Public Utility Commission signs off. That will likely happen later this year.
BT general manager Stephen Barraclough said he expected the two groups would work out their differences. He praised the Schurz offer, and said that the city is “uniquely generous” in its benefits package.
After all, Barraclough pointed out, only a municipal employer would offer Bennington Battle Day and Town Meeting Day off, as well as a pension plan.
Still, Tykocki maintained that Schurz’s flat rate for health care, rather than a sliding scale based on income that employees currently pay, “could be a pretty big financial burden for people,” Tykocki said.
Councilor Dave Hartnett (D-North District), who also serves on the Burlington Telecom Advisory Board, said he’d push the city council to advocate on behalf of employees.
“If it wasn’t for the sweat and tears of the BT employees over the last 10 years, where would we be?” he said, explaining that it was the employees who had made the entity successful. “I hope we can come to some kind of an agreement here.”
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BT employees can thank Miro and City Council.
Who loves ya, baby?
Besides , there will be plenty of service wage jobs available to BT employees to work 2nd jobs when Sinex gets done building The Tumor downtown.
Like I said . . “Who loves ya, baby?”
I would recommend thanking Kiss and Leopold. Everyone after them has just been trying to clean up the mess they made.
And we’re surprised?
Thank Jane Knodell and her illegal voting scam that sold the Telecom to Schurz .
Not to mention her support of Chauncey Gardener aka Bob Kiss and the thieving slime ball Johnny Leopold.
With Friends like Knodell keeping the poor in town poorer who needs enemies.
North Old Ender- perhaps you should be thanking the council members who wanted to embarrass Miro and vote for their choice-Schurz at the last minute just to thumb their nose at Miro.
The council and the mayor should have investigated the company more before selling to them. Miro just wanted to sell to the company who offered the most money so we know where his priorities were, money talks and bull shit walks. Knodell and the city council are to blame too. They should have sold local like many people wanted!!
The same would’ve happened with Tucows-owned operation….public employee benefits are better than those offered in the private-sector. It’s that simple. They have stronger unions and state law that offer more protections to those unions.
No different than what Ting would’ve been, or what Comcast, Time Warner, etc offer.
“If it wasn’t for the sweat and tears of the BT employees over the last 10 years, where would we be?” [Hartnett said]
If the Compliance Officer at BT had been on her toes 10 years ago the city taxpayers that Kiss and Leopold stole from would be 17 Million dollars wealthier
Gi Grape, the local offer was the lowest of all the offers. The agreement made with Chase by the city to bail out the mess Kiss and Leopold left was such that Chase would have rejected the offer. All the locals whining about sticking it to Chase really shows what their integrity is, or in this case is not. Burlington got stuck by Kiss and Leopold so they wanted to ignore the agreement with Chase and stick them with the loss. Why the budgets are in such lousy shape and we keep having to pay more and more
I am sick of paying a lot of taxes and getting nothing in return so why don’t I just not pay and tell the city to go away, too, bad, their taxes are not binding on me.
Chase may be the wrong entity but the point is the same.
This is SUCH a great deal at so many levels. #visionary
>>> employees won’t receive the same sweet benefits package
>>> will lose at least 12 and up to 17 days off annually (!!)
>>> CEO Todd Schurz defended his company’s benefits options
^^ Horrible! Schurz has NO business in our city.
This article reminds us why we must protect BT and grow the network ourselves. BT has matured into cash cow, let’s keep our money local. Municipal fiber optic is popping-off across the country, it’s an actual trend right now, and Burlington was way ahead of the curve!
So what can I do to kill this deal? How can I help BT, and its’ employees?
Schurz must obtain approval from the state to operate. A growing group of concerned Burlingtonian’s are fighting back by litigating the state and the Public Utility Commission, who must approve Schurz. The Public Utility Commission recently ruled in OPPOSITION of Schurz, dealing a blow to this bad deal, and signaling support to the citizens of Burlington who want to keep BT local.
Sign-up for updates and support this growing group of Burlingtonian’s fighting to protect BT, and its’ employees!
https://www.keepbtlocal.com/puc-interventi…
Captain Dave “I’m OK with giving up transparency for a better offer” Hartnett:
Im shocked! Shocked! to find that Schurz’ employee benefit slashing is going on in here.