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. 

Sen Jim DeMint's "Union Bosses" Game

As soon as the Senate returns from its break, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reader will schedule a formal roll call vote on the nomination of Errol Southers to be Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration. Southers is former assistant chief of the Los Angeles Airport Police, and a former FBI agent. His confirmation hearings concluded this month, and his confirmation is considered highly likely.

Why is Reid holding this vote? It's an unusual move. It's because Sen. Jim DeMint put a hold on the nomination because he is concerned about unionization at the TSA. During his confirmation hearings, Southers wouldn't say whether he would support or oppose unionization efforts until he was "confirmed, in place and hearing from stakeholders about the issue."

That's not good enough for DeMint, whose spokesman Wesley Denton says: "This is an important debate because many Americans don't want someone running the TSA who stands ready to give union bosses the power to veto or delay future security measures at our airports."

DeMint through his spokesman makes it sound as though Southers has already made up his mind to support unionization, which is not what Southers said. However, the real meat here is in the phrase "union bosses," a classic derogatory term for union leaders. Further, the suggestion is that these "bosses" would veto or delay future security measures at our airports. Why exactly would they do that? Because they're unamerican, likely scary socialists and possibly craven communists? Why else would they deliberately endanger their own country?

DeMint now blames Reid for not allowing a debate on the nomination before adjourning, and still won't lift his hold.

Why do TSA workers want to unionize? Arbitrary work rules, a high rate of workplace injuries, high turnover rates, unfair promotion and scheduling policies, low morale and inadequate pay, for starters. I don't know about you, but I want the 40,000 people at the x-ray machines and everywhere else to be at least minimally content in their jobs.

It's interesting that Immigration and Custom Service employees and Federal Border Guards are unionized, but in 2003 President Bush decided it would threaten national security to allow the TSA to unionize. Don't the Federal Border Guards have something to do with national security?

DeMint is holding up Errol Southers because he can, also because he wants to defeat President Obama any time he can (remember Waterloo), and because he hates unions. The fact that the nation's national security got caught in the middle was apparently of little concern to him. Perhaps he didn't expect an attack on Christmas Day. Not many people did.

Lawmakers meet with Fire Fighters Union

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Today Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) addressed the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Legislative Conference about the importance of collective bargaining. Pelosi awed at “what a difference an election makes” in addressing workers’ rights as well as their right to organize. Union representatives said that the Obama Administration is much friendlier to unions than the Bush Administration was, and is looking forward to the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Pelosi hammered home her commitment to that bill, and highlighted how the Economic Recovery Package provided billions of dollars to help prevent job loss in the public safety sector.

Also speaking at the event was Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), who showcased his support for the Fire Fighter Fatality Reduction Act. The proposed law would set national requirements at fire stations for staffing, training, and equipment, moves that Lieberman believes will save lives. Additionally, Lieberman said he supports a national credentialing program for fire fighters, to make sure those responding to emergencies are properly trained to meet the national requirements he hopes are created.

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) talked to the crowd about the Federal Firefighter Fairness Act, which would create a “rebuttable presumption” that certain diseases contracted by fire fighters are "job related”, and thus subject to compensation programs. Collins said that this would apply to federal fire fighters, because it was "fundamentally unfair" that federal fire fighters would not be able to receive the same health protection as those on the state and local level.

Both Collins and Lieberman spoke in support the right of workers to bargain collectively.

Vice President Joseph Biden is scheduled to speaker later today at the event.

Unions: Can they help the economy?

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Sevice

According to a report titled "Unions Are Good for the American
Economy" released by the Center for American Progress Action Fund,
unions would significantly help every American now during the economic
crisis.

"Workers in Unions earn 30% higher wages taking home about $863 a week
compared to $663 for the typical non-union worker." said Robert B.
Reich, Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public
Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and former
Secretary of Labor for President Bill Clinton. Reich also said that the
report shows that union workers are 59% more likely to have employer
provided health insurance as well.

According to the report, unions help workers achieve higher wages said
Karla Walter, the Policy Analyst with the American Worker Project at
American Progress. "We found when we controlled for factors like race,
age, and education level we were able to quantify the union
difference. What we found is that unionized workers wages on average
were 11.3% higher than non-unionized workers with similar
characteristics... That translates to $2.26 up per hour more." she said.

Walter stated that non-union workers would also benefit because their
employers would be likely to raise wages in response to fears that if
they don't raise wages their employees would unionize. "The Employee
Free choice Act is not only important because it makes it harder for
anti union companies to harass workers attempting to unionize and
break the law but it also provides a very important economic benefit.
Boosting unionization rates will improve millions of Americans
economic standing, it will provide the families who have union jobs to
pass to the middle class and it will pump billions of dollars into the
economy ever year." Walter concluded.

Clinton addresses the Building and Construction Trades Department

Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke today at the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) 2008 Legislative Conference, where the BCTD celebrated a "century of leadership." She told the participants to think of the election as a hiring decision, and the primary as a long job interview.

She said unions build the middle class, and that the American labor movement is under assault, which is shrinking the middle class. She said she co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) to stand up for the right to organization. She also said she would stand up for the Davis-Bacon Act and fair wages, and that her plan is to raise minimum wage, and to tie minimum wage to congressional salaries. She said that when the economy is faltering, the country needs unions to "stand strong" for workers' rights, wages, and a right to affordable health care.

Clinton said that if she becomes president, she will end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home, and when the veterans come home she will take care of them with programs such as Helmets to Hardhats to get them jobs. She said she also has ideas for a program called the Rebuild America Plan to create three million more jobs, and will appoint a Secretary of Labor that is pro-labor. She also said she plans to keep defense jobs in America, create a strategic energy fund, and work on trade that is good for families.


Clinton said she thinks this is the most anti-union and anti-labor administration this country has ever had. She also thinks Sen. John McCain is "dead wrong" on important issues facing America, and that he does not understand the economy. She said right now the U.S. has lost jobs, costs are up, and there is a home and credit crisis, and that what this country needs is a labor movement like it had in the 20th century.

Other speakers at the conference were Charlie Cook of the National Journal's Cook Political Report, and Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), and Joint Economic Committee Chairman Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). Cook said he expects the presidential election to be very close, like the last two elections in 2000 and 2004. Schumer said he also supports EFCA, and wants to "go back to the days" where laborers had bargaining power, and to "bring back the middle class."