“Tens of thousands of Verizon workers on the East Coast walked off the job on Wednesday after the company and two labor unions failed to reach a new agreement by a 6 a.m. deadline set by the unions, more than eight months after their contracts expired”. There are about 800 local Verizon workers represented by the CWA and smaller unions. “Rather, we’ve asked for more flexibility in routing calls and consolidating some of our call centers, some of which employ a handful of people”, the CEO said, directing readers to view Verizon’s proposal.
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Verizon said it wants to address healthcare issues, citing the rise in medical costs for both retirees and current employees. In August 2011, about 45,000 Verizon workers went on strike for about two weeks.
Sanders’ opponent, Hillary Clinton, released a statement Wednesday supporting the striking workers and calling on the company to “come back to the bargaining table with a fair offer for their workers”.
The striking employees work a variety of jobs in Verizon’s call centers, on its maintenance staff and as customer service installation technicians, making chances good that you could be affected if you have Verizon service. The company has activated its business-continuity plans as customer service “remains the company’s top priority”, it said. The striking workers install broadband Internet, fix phone lines, and handle customer service in the Northeast US.
“We do have a bit of a delay”, said Tami Erwin, Verizon’s Group President – Consumer and Mass Business Sales and Service, said. “We want them to succeed because they when they succeed, our members succeed”.
As Newsdayreports, Sanders secured an endorsement from the Transport Workers Union Local 100 Wednesday, which represents the city’s subway employees, among others. They include installers, customer service employees, fix workers and other service workers in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Despite the support, the employees and union leaders said they’d all prefer to be doing their jobs instead of walking the pavement.
Verizon spokesman Rich Young told the Associated Press the company was disappointed by the strike.
“I figure it will be a long one, yeah”, Union Representative Leabern Kennedy said. “They don’t have enough people on staff to do the job”, Master said. Miriam Dinicholas, who is with Communications Workers of America said, “For years now our health care has been sacrificed and they continue to contribute more and more”.
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About a hundred Verizon workers took the streets near the company’s offices in Philadelphia.
