Experts From Both Sides Assess Verizon Strike

Amidst the largest economic crisis that the US has seen since 2008, tens of thousands of Verizon union workers are on strike over contractual disagreements. 

The 45,000 Verizon union workers from across the east coast, who belong to the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), began picketing on Sunday for Verizon to remove what union workers see as a long list of concession demands from the negotiating table.

“Workers are on strike at Verizon because the company is pushing these workers out of the middle class and demanding big concessions in the amount of $20,000 per working family every year,” CWA Communications Director Candice Johnson told TRNS. 

“This is a very profitable company,” continued Johnson. “It is a company with annualized revenues of $100 billion. It’s a company with annualized profits of $8 billion dollars. There is no need to be making these excessive demands of working families.”

Topics contentiously debated by Verizon and union workers include health care coverage, pensions and work rules.

But the main issue, according to Tim Lee, a leading labor specialist and national policy expert at the Center for Individual Freedom, is that Verizon union workers refuse to contribute enough to their healthcare benefits.

“[Union workers] are refusing to even contribute to healthcare costs while most of the 130,000 private Verizon employees do contribute,” Lee told TRNS. 

“It’s ironic,” Lee added, “that the union representing workers in one of the declining areas of Verizon [wireline] are holding out while those in more productive aspects of Verizon [wireless] actually do contribute.”

Johnson is adamant, however, that union workers just want to maintain their middle-class lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. 

“Once the company indicates it’s not looking for huge concession demands from 45,000 workers and their families, our workers will be back on the job,” Johnson said. “Verizon workers are leading the fight for the middle-class since most people in America don’t have bargaining rights or a union voice,” she added.

Many are worried that this strike will negatively impact service for customers with landline phones, internet service and Verizon’s FiOS television service, since field technicians and call center workers are among those on strike.

Verizon, however, said in a statement that the company has trained tens of thousands of management employees, retirees and others to maintain wireline operations during the strike. Johnson echoed these sentiments on behalf of CWA and stated that “our goal is not to hurt customers at all.” 

Yet there have been numerous reports of Verizon union workers vandalizing Verizon equipment and preventing replacement workers from entering and exiting job sites, which could ultimately affect customer service. 

Lee mentioned a specific case in which a Verizon union worker followed a replacement Verizon worker to harass him on a job call. In regards to the alleged harassment, the union worker stated, “we can’t stop them from doing their job but we can harass them while they are on the job.”

Neither Lee nor Johnson were able to estimate when the strike would end but both were insistent that it can only end if the other side is willing to compromise. 

Clinton, Obama echo one another on issues

Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) spoke to a crowd of largely CWA members to thunderous applause and multiple standing ovations about their plans as potential presidents of the United States on issues that ranged from labor unions and health care to broadband internet and green energy, from the mortgage crisis and the looming recession to NAFTA and the pending Colombia trade agreement.

Both democratic nominees expressed solidarity with union members and criticized the current Bush administration for their lack of support for the labor movement. Clinton allied herself with union workers as the “underdogs,” who kept persevering despite being told to back down. Clinton said she planned to make the Employee Free Trade Act “the law of the land.” Both candidates called for an end to privatization and outsourcing of American jobs, and Clinton promised to end tax breaks and subsidies to oil companies if elected. Obama pledged to invest $150 billion over ten years in green technology and new jobs that cannot be outsourced.

Both candidates advocated making high-speed internet available to all Americans to enable them to compete within the global economy. They also opposed Pres. Bush’s attempt to secure a trade agreement for Colombia, urging Congress to oppose the deal and call for an end to Colombian violence before negotiations are made. Clinton called herself the only candidate with a specific plan about how to fix NAFTA, and also said that Obama has no plan for universal health care. Obama said he opposes NAFTA, that he is the only candidate who will help middle-class families, and acknowledged that although he and Clinton have run a “fierce campaign,” no one can afford another four years of Bush policy. He called for an end to fighting in Iraq, and a new fight for American infrastructure.

Both candidates also compared Sen. McCain to Bush and said that McCain would worsen the damage caused by the Bush administration. Clinton said that if McCain received a 3 a.m. phone call with an economic crisis at hand, he would let it continue to ring. Obama criticized excessive war spending as wasteful, negated a 100 year occupation in Iraq alluding to a comment made by McCain, and urged America to say no to a metaphorical Bush third term.