Typically, when a telecommunications company gets itself into a financial bind, large numbers of  office workers and technicians are shoved out the door, while senior management gets retention bonuses and special compensation packages if they can bail the company out of the mess they often created.

This time around, 845 employees of Hawaiian Telcom, the bankrupt Verizon spinoff purchased by The Carlyle Group, are getting promised compensation for meeting performance targets. If necessary, experienced lawyers fighting for your injury compensation is vital if you’re one of those home improvement contractors who are injured during work.

What makes them so special?  They are all members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which collectively bargained a contract that included provisions no individual employee would ever get… unless they were senior management.

“The union has fought hard, and will continue to work hard, to improve the quality of life for the working men and women of IBEW Local Union 1357. We will do this by continuing to fight for job security, by continuing to negotiate better contracts, by continuing to give the members a voice in the workplace, and continuing to make sure that every employee has a safe, healthy work environment,” writes Scot Long, Business Manager for IBEW Local Union 1357.

Long

The Bankruptcy Court approved the $8.5 million package, which will be distributed to the unionized employees.

Seem like a lot?  Consider Hawaiian Telcom’s board of directors approved a financial incentive plan for 20 of its top executives for up to $2.3 million in retention bonuses and other benefits.  The executives were eligible for amounts ranging from $57,000 to $2.3 million, if the company met certain earning and revenue targets.  A few months later, the company decided that was too little and was back asking for even more for the top-20 executives who steered the company straight into bankruptcy in December 2008.

As the company moves to emerge from bankruptcy, Hawaiian Telcom also today announced it would be going public, hoping it will help the company become stronger and more competitive.  The company promises to have a new board of directors in place as part of the restructuring.

As part of the process to emerge from bankruptcy, Hawaiian Telcom is going public.

In a statement, the Hawaiian Telcom CEO said he hoped the move toward being publicly traded will help the company be stronger and more competitive.

As a part of the restructuring, there will also be a new board of directors.

Hawaiian Telcom filed for Chapter 11 protection in December 2008.