Paul J. Cameron; Paul T. Ferris v. Idearc Media Corp

Appellants Paul J. Cameron, Paul T. Ferris, Paul M. Gleason, and Kenneth W. Rosenthal are former directory-advertising sales representatives in the Premise Sales unit of appellee Idearc Media Corporation (“Idearc”). Each was discharged in July 2007. Idearc says they were let go for poor performance; the employees allege that the terminations were motivated by age discrimination and a desire to negate pension benefits, and they also advance a retaliation claim. The district court rejected all of their claims.

The lawsuit revolves around Idearc’s Minimum Standards Plan (“MSP”) included in its 2002 collective bargaining agreement (the “2002 CBA”) with Local 1301 of the Communications Workers of America (“the Union”). The 2002 CBA’s terms governed the employment relationship between appellants and the company from June 2, 2002 to June 23, 2007. After the 2002 CBA expired, no CBA was in effect until December 7, 2008, when Idearc and the Union agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement (the “2008 CBA”).