CMP employees in the Fairfield Service Center show off their solidarity red.Union members at CMP wore red last Tuesday in support of the "CMP 47", the bargaining unit that was certified in January of 2006 and is still working to negotiate their first contract. Approximately 600 employees of CMP already belong to the union and have worked under a collective bargaining agreement with the Company for decades. In 2005 a group of fourteen Dispatchers joined the union and negotiated a supplement to the existing agreement.

When the new group of 47, many of them professional employees, voted in 2006 to join the union, the Company insisted that they intended to negotiate an entirely new and separate contract for the new unit. The National Labor Relations Board recently settled unfair labor practice charges that were filed in February of 2006 when the Company unilaterally suspended "The 47" from participation in merit increases and the all-employee incentive bonus program. Negotiations for the first contract are ongoing with assistance from a federal mediator. Members of the original bargaining unit from around the company donned their red clothing to show support for the new bargaining unit in their continuing efforts.