David Tolbert, Verizon
Steward, Local 2106, Salisbury, MD
Hi, my name is David Tolbert. I have been a Sales and Service Consultant at Verizon for almost 8 years. I work out of the Salisbury, Md. office. Before my start at Verizon, I worked at a previous corporation for almost 10 years that purchased by another company that came in and promised us that our jobs would be safe. Not even 4 months in we started to see a change, some of our products started to be outsourced to other countries. The worry began to grow over myself and other colleagues. And about 9 months in we received notification that our plant would be closed.
After being unemployed for about 9 months I received the opportunity to work for Verizon. I did not have much knowledge on unions, just knew there were certain jobs that had unions. Learning and educating myself about the union has been an important part of my life. After being part of 2 strikes, and the latter was for 45 days, the longest in recent history, I have seen the strength of the union and the camaraderie.
Being a part of mobilization processes in our office to show solidarity to management before and during the strikes included a whole range of activities, from rolling thunder (where we stomp our feet), standing up all at the same time during the day, wearing red on Thursday and Black on Friday, picketing out front of the business office and information desk drops. This was something I had never experienced yet was thankful to be apart of. After the strike I was presented with the opportunity to become Steward for Local 2106 and I'm now apart of the CWA National Customer Service Committee. I am thankful for the opportunity to represent my brothers and sisters and District 2-13 and feel that I can bring fresh ideas to the national team. I also feel that we need to continue to grow our union. There is power in numbers!!