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Also in Summer 2010
- Ready for the Future: Moving Forward Together
- SIF: Health Care/Employee Free Choice: "We Couldn't Have Done it Without the SIF"
- SIF: T-Mobile: New Strategy to Win Bargaining Rights
- SIF: Verizon-Frontier: "We Welcomed the Opportunity to Do Our Part"
- SIF: Windstream: The Fight for Retiree Health Care Goes On
- SIF: Lean Manufacturing: 'Plant Managers are Telling Managers that the Union has Value'
- SIF: Media Projects: 'People are So Jealous that Our Union is Able to Do This'
- SIF: Speed Matters: CWA a Leading Voice for High-Speed Broadband
- Building a Political Movement: 'The Beginning of a New Political Movement'
- Building a Political Movement: A New NLRB: Another Path to Protecting Workers' Rights
- Building a Political Movement: Holding Elected Leaders Accountable
- Building a Political Movement: 'We Showed that Politics Can Be About Creating Jobs'
- Building a Political Movement: NMB Rule Change Brings Democracy to Airline Elections
- Building a Political Movement: 'We Can Now Count on Members Who Will Immediately Volunteer'
- Building a Political Movement: St. Louis: A Model for CWA Teamwork
- Stewards Army: Stewards Army on Active Duty for CWA Nationwide
- Stewards Army: 'We're Stronger and We've Gained Respect'
- Diversity: Board Diversity Seats "A Great Bridge-Builder"
SIF: Verizon Business: Tearing Down the Wall
After a long battle for representation, Verizon Business technicians got their CWA voice in a breakthrough agreement with Verizon in 2008.
As part of the deal, Verizon agreed to extend recognition to 600 former MCI techs at Verizon Business. The workers had been battling with their new employer for nearly two years, with strong support from CWA and IBEW members who campaigned to “tear down the wall” between union and non-union parts of the company.
That campaign, part of the Verizon Strategic Industry Fund, was one of CWA’s first SIFs. It allowed CWAers to build political and public pressure to help the techs get their union.
Verizon had built a virtual wall between its technicians by creating a separate unit, Verizon Business, for the former MCI workers. That meant that Verizon Business techs were earning a lot less for doing the same work.
In March 2007 at a public event in Boston, 60 percent of the 350 Verizon Business techs in New York and New England turned in signed cards seeking a union. The cards were counted and certified by a group of lawmakers, religious and civic leaders.
Verizon lashed out at the workers, challenging the count’s authenticity, demanding captive audience and one-on-one meetings with supervisors, threatening union supporters and engaging in illegal surveillance.
Thousands of CWA and IBEW members fought back by joining mass rallies in New York City and Boston outside Verizon corporate offices. More elected leaders stepped in, calling on Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg to honor the workers’ bargaining rights.