Most of the striking workers service the company’s landline phone business and FiOS broadband network – not the much larger Verizon Wireless network. And he promised them, “We’re going to win this thing!” Issues include healthcare, offshoring call center jobs, work rules and pensions.
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The workers have been without a contract since its agreement expired in August.
Most of the union employees who went on strike work for the landline, high-speed Internet and television services division of the company – known as wireline.
As the workers have intensified their campaign to protect good jobs in America, public support for a fair contract has grown.
Mike Panzerino, a treasurer of CWA Local 1118, says between 300 and 400 union members walked a picket line outside the company’s office in downtown Albany, where workers set up an inflatable “greedy pig” and rat.
About 39,000 members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in nine eastern states and Washington, D.C. went on strike Wednesday morning.
Verizon Communications Inc., which has a total workforce of more than 177,000 employees, said in a statement Tuesday that the company was contacted by federal mediators and is willing to sit down and continue negotiation talks, if the unions agree to hold off on their strike.
Citing complaints including that Verizon was not expanding FiOS and instead shedding workers who installed the video service, about 39,000 workers struck Verizon starting at 6 a.m. April 13. He said Verizon has trained thousands of nonunion workers to fill in for striking workers and “we will be there for our customers”.
He says “we will be there for our customers”. For years, Verizon has been cutting vital staff – it has almost 40 percent fewer workers now than a decade ago – and has failed to hire the personnel necessary to properly roll out the service. Through our hard work, Verizon is making record profits while our families are left with threats to our jobs and our customers aren’t getting the service they need. “They need to take a look at where the business stands in 2016”, he added.
Workers protested at various Verizon locations along the East Coast.
“Let’s make it clear – we are ready for a strike”, Bob Mudge, president of Verizon’s wire-line network operations, said in a statement.
The two unions representing Verizon workers say their employees have been without a contract since August.
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“They are fighting the fight for living wages and against outsourcing”, Gordon said. His local represents 700 Verizon union workers, including operators, inside and outside field technicians, mostly in Suffolk County and some in Nassau County.
