CWA Members Standing Strong in Verizon Strike

UPDATE MAY 27, 2016: 

After 44 days of the largest strike in recent history, striking Verizon workers achieved their major goals of improving working families’ standard of living, creating good union jobs in their communities and achieving a first contract for wireless retail store workers.
Read more about the Agreement.

After ten months of trying to reach a fair contract, 39,000 Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Virginia went on strike on April 13.

Despite making record profits — $39 billion over the last three years — Verizon executives have been pushing to offshore more jobs to the Philippines, Mexico and other locations, outsource work to low-wage contractors and transfer workers away from home for months at a time.

Regulators in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland are investigating Verizon for unsafe conditions affecting workers and consumers in those states. Verizon had tried to block the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission from pursuing the case, instead, regulators scheduled hearings, indicating that they take these complaints very seriously.

Communities where Verizon has pledged to build out its FiOS high-speed broadband are angry that Verizon is reneging on that promise.

In New York City and Philadelphia, Verizon has not met its obligations to build out FiOS high-speed broadband under citywide cable franchise agreements, and Verizon has failed to build-out FiOS in Baltimore, western Massachusetts, virtually all upstate New York cities and many communities in Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, the company is making $1.8 billion in profit every month – after all the bills are paid –  but continues to demand givebacks and concessions from workers and retirees and refuses to provide customers with the FiOS service they want and the properly working copper network that 8 million customers in those states depend on.

CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor said, “We’ve negotiated for almost a year, in good faith. But nothing satisfies this greedy management. Verizon is determined to destroy good jobs , because its executives are focused on their own pay and their Wall Street share price instead of the long-term stability of the company and responsiveness to customers.”

“Verizon has shown it has no regard for workers and our families, for customers, for communities. It should keep good jobs in the communities that are generating demand for Verizon services, not send those jobs offshore,” said CWA District 2-13 Vice President Ed Mooney.  

At rallies and picket lines across Verizon territory and at Verizon Wireless store actions across the country, thousands of CWA and IBEW members and families, CWA retirees, Jobs with Justice activists, community supporters and allies are standing up to Verizon’s greed. 

At Verizon’s annual meeting in Albuquerque, more than 250 CWA members called out the company for enriching top executives while attempting to cut jobs, benefits and workers’ standard of living and to put longtime customers at risk by not maintaining the network.

Public support remains very strong, with elected officials in every state in the Verizon footprint joining strikers at picket lines and rallies. Twenty U.S. Senators from the region signed a letter telling Verizon to bargain fairly. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the next leader of the U.S. Senate, joined the picket lines, as did House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, and many others.