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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 19 May 16, 2016
(front page)
Strikers reject Verizon offer, receive solidarity
‘We’ll stay out one day longer, one day stronger!’
Militant/Jane Harris
Unionists on strike against Verizon rally in Jersey City, New Jersey,
April 29, rejecting telecommunications giant’s “last, best, final”
concession-filled offer made the previous day.
BY CANDACE WAGNER
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The East Coast strike of 39,000 unionists against
telecommunications giant Verizon, the largest strike in the U.S. since
the last Verizon walkout five years ago, is making an impact across the
country.
Hundreds of members of the Communications Workers of America and the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers rallied here April 29 to
tell Verizon they weren’t accepting the “last, best and final” offer the
company had presented the previous day.
Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Virginia went on strike April 13
after 10 months of fruitless contract negotiations. Their previous
contract expired Aug. 1.
The company cut off health care benefits for strikers and their families
May 1.
Verizon, which made an operating profit of $30 billion last year,
overnighted a letter from Executive Vice President Marc Reed outlining
the company’s offer to every striking employee.
“To Mr. Reed — it’s just your final best offer if we take it, and we
won’t take it!” IBEW Local 827 President Robert Speer told the rally,
which erupted in cheering and chants of “One day longer, one day
stronger.” Members of the painters union and the Amalgamated Transit
Union were there to show their support.
Verizon’s latest offer upped the wage increase from 6.5 to 7.5 percent
over three years. Reed’s letter claimed the raise “will be greater than
the average increase in healthcare expense over the life of the
contract,” which most strikers dispute. The company also pledged that if
the unions sign the agreement by May 20, demands for changes in
involuntary temporary work assignments to another state and
modifications in Sunday premium pay would be dropped.
“There was no movement on the closing of call centers” in the offer, an
April 28 CWA District 1 bargaining report commented. “They gave us an
insulting proposal on contracting out plant work that does not return
any contracted work to the bargaining unit, but might possibly slow down
further contracting out in the future.” Verizon proposes reducing
disability benefits as well.
Support for strike
At the rally Tom Sterlacci, who pickets a Verizon work center in
Secaucus described the support the strikers receive. “All day people
roll down the window and say, ‘We’re with you.’ They bring water and
coffee. There’s been UPS drivers, a couple of Walmart workers and county
garbage collectors.”
Dawn Sickles and Liz Null had been on the picket line in Manhattan since
7 a.m. when this reporter dropped by in the afternoon May 2. “Usually we
start the morning at a hotel that is housing scabs. We’ve gotten the
support of the hotel workers union, so many hotels have asked them to
leave,” Sickles said.
Many strikers say public support for them is strong because of the
economic difficulties faced by most workers. “People are upset,” Sickles
said. “They’re aware of the disparities. They have kids at home in their
30s, living in the basement.”
A central issue in the strike is the company’s demand to cap pensions
after 30 years of service and revise the calculations used to set lump
sum retirement payments, Null said. The company’s offer includes
incentives for voluntary early retirement.
“We recognize why they are downsizing with the change in technology,”
Null said. “But they are so mean-spirited. They track workers with a
GPS. If you come in a minute late they make you stand against the wall
like you’re in elementary school.”
‘Bosses try to make unions look bad’
“What’s happening to us has been happening to a lot of workers,” Rudy
Destin told the Militant at a Brooklyn picket line May 2. “Motown was
called that because it was Motor City, the heart of blue collar work.
Now Michigan has become a ‘right-to-work’ state and they want to do the
same in New York. The bosses are trying to make the union into something
bad — like a drug cartel.” Workers driving past honked in solidarity as
pickets chanted, “Every job a union job!” and “New York is a union town!”
Verizon considers Washington, Maryland and Delaware one service region,
technician Lapreia Terry said at a May 2 picket line at a wireless store
in Washington, D.C. Previously, when workers accepted two-week
assignments away from their workstation, Verizon footed the bill for
lodging. “Now they want us to go for 60 days at a time and pay our own
lodging,” she said.
A National Day of Action May 5 will include strike rallies and will
expand picketing at Verizon Wireless stores across the country with the
help of CWA districts and other unions.
Glova Scott in Washington, D.C., contributed to this article.
Related articles:
On the Picket Line
Framed-up Quebec rail workers gain union support
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