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Unskilled Replacement Workers Put Verizon, Public at Risk

August 17, 2011

As the Verizon strike enters its second week, thousands of untrained replacement workers and managers have been sent to do the jobs of more than 45,000 IBEW and CWA members up and down the East Coast.

But many of these replacement workers are finding out that doing the work of skilled telecommunications workers is a lot harder than they expected.

A video by members of the IBEW in New York State shows what happens when you put inexperienced workers around energized equipment, with replacement workers blowing a transformer.

And a video captured by Middleboro, Mass., Local 2321, shows IBEW strikers stepping in to prevent clueless replacement workers from causing damage and personal injury to themselves and others.

Says Local 2321 Business Manager Ed Starr:

We’re seeing people without the right safety equipment, trying to do the job without doing the proper pre-work safety checks. These are the kind of screw ups that would get any of us written up in a heartbeat. The majority of these replacements have no telecommunications training and someone is going to get hurt bad unless Verizon settles this.

Local 2321 has been documenting unsafe working practices on its Facebook page since the strike began.