August 20, 2011 (Washington, DC) -- The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers today issued the following statement: On a day when we should be lowering the temperature between Verizon and its unions in the Northeast, it is unfortunate that Verizon’s Executive Vice President of Human Resources Marc Reed felt the need to make inflammatory remarks in a company statement, including “to convince the unions to begin bargaining in good faith,” when in fact the exact opposite was true. We negotiated a fair back to work agreement yesterday and salute Verizon’s senior management for their mature and responsible approach in that process, which included an understating to avoid posturing in our public statements. While we find Mr. Reed’s comments in violation of that spirit, we will not let it deter us from the important business of getting a fair new contract while continuing to work under an extension the terms of the current agreement. ### Contact: Jim Spellane, 202/728-6014, jim_spellane@ibew.org
For release 1 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011 CWA, IBEW Reach Agreement on Bargaining with Verizon; Members to Return to Work Tuesday, August 23Following is a statement by the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: Washington, D.C. – Members of CWA and IBEW at Verizon Communications will return to work on Tuesday, Aug. 23, at which time the contract will be back in force for an indefinite period. We have reached agreement with Verizon on how bargaining will proceed and how it will be restructured. The major issues remain to be discussed, but overall, issues now are focused and narrowed. We appreciate the unity of our members and the support of so many. Now we will focus on bargaining fairly and moving forward. CWA and IBEW represent 45,000 workers at Verizon covered by this contract from Virginia to New England. More information is available at www.cwa-union.org and www.ibew.org. ### 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.
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:
Local 2321 has been documenting unsafe working practices on its Facebook page since the strike began. Verizon Strike Solidarity Builds as Fight Enters Second Week
August 14, 2011 More than 45,000 Verizon workers continue to hold strong as the strike enters its sixth day.
East Windsor, N.J., Local 827 reports on its Web site that:
In Boston, Rep. Bill Keating joined with other local official and religious and community leaders in defending “good, decent, dignified jobs.” Members of the IBEW and the Communications Workers of American went on strike August 7 after Verizon refused to budge on its demands for more than $1 billion in cutbacks to employee health and retirement benefits as well as elimination of job security and restrictions on outsourcing. This is despite the fact that the company made more than $20 billion in profits over the last few years, while using tax loopholes to avoid paying $1 billion in corporate taxes. Middleboro, Ma., Local 2322 member Darren Wilson told South Coast Today columnist Jack Spillane that Verizon continues to make record profits off its FiOS services:
For Local 827 Business Manager Bill Huber, Verizon’s refusal to compromise on any of its demands is indicative of its desire to squeeze its workers:
Activists report that morale remains high, despite Verizon’s intransigence. Boston Local 2222 member Claudia Slaney told the Boston Globe:
Middleboro, Mass., Local 2322 Business Manager Eric Hetrick says that all his members have remained resolute, despite efforts by Verizon to slander striking workers:
Picket lines have been on the whole peaceful, though in a few areas there have been reports of strikers being injured by managers and replacement workers. In Amherst, NY, two workers were sent to the hospital after a replacement worker drove his car into them. Verizon is also trying to get injunctions to halt picketing. CWA Local 1122 President James Wagner told YNN.com:
Solidarity rallies at local Verizon Wireless outlets have been organized across the country. At one event in San Francisco, an employee at TV station KQED said:
Tell Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam to stop attacking the middle class and bargain seriously with its employees.
Statement of Edwin D. Hill, International President,International Brotherhood of Electrical WorkersOn Developments in the Verizon StrikeAugust 13, 2011
I wish to state in no uncertain terms that IBEW locals are not to engage in such actions while their brothers and sisters are on strike. While we understand the economic pressure that is affecting many workers all across our economy and the short-term need for employment, performing work at a struck company violates a bedrock principle upon which the IBEW, like the entire labor movement, was founded. I am using the full authority of the office of International President to put an end to our members undermining the struggle of others in our union and in the CWA. What we are seeing as this strike unfolds is the fruit of 30 years of unremitting class warfare waged by corporate America and their political allies against the workers of our country. As our economy continues to slog through the mire of the Wall Street-created crisis of 2008, it is a bitter truth that men and women increasingly desperate for employment will grasp at any opportunity. It is also an unshakable truth that solidarity is our foremost – indeed our only – weapon to fight back against those who would condemn us to a life of subservience. I call on all IBEW members to live up to this principle in these difficult times, obey the law and stand strong in the common struggle that unites us all. Verizon has made a full assault on our wages, benefits and working conditions, and, having unleashed the forces of anger and bitterness, are whining like children at the mess they have created. The fallout of this conflict is also affecting many others in communities across the Northeastern United States. We repeat our calls for the company to engage in serious negotiations for a fair contract so that our members can get back to work and help our struggling economy to recover.
Verizon Workers Blog It Like It Is
August 11, 2011
As newspapers, blogs and TV stations report on the Verizon strike, IBEW and CWA members are challenging incorrect information and anti-union perspectives that are seeping out on the Web.
Responding to a post on the Washington Times Web page, a Verizon lineman writes:
In response to a Washington Post story, one reader posted:
Verizon: Avoiding Taxes, Squeezing Workers, Raking it In
August 10, 2011 The Verizon strike enters its third day as more than 45,000 employees protest the company’s demand for more than $1 billion in cutbacks to health care, retirement and other benefits.
Not only did Verizon make more than $20 billion in profit in the last four years – all while paying no corporate income tax – it used loopholes in the tax code to get a billon dollar refund check from the IRS, says the Center for Tax Justice, a policy think tank, according to the company’s annual report:
The center finds that if Verizon had paid its corporate tax at the official rate of 35 percent, it would have been enough (more than $11 billion) to prevent cuts to student loan programs made in the recent congressional debt deal. Verizon is one of most infamous corporate tax cheats, becoming a top target of activists looking to crack down on tax loopholes that let billion dollar companies pay little to nothing in taxes. Says the Center for Tax Justice:
Photo used under a creative commons license from Flickr user Photo1
August 7, 2011 12:00 a.m. Midnight, August 7, 2011 Contact: Jim Spellane, 202-728-6014 Northeast Verizon Workers Strike Company Refuses to Move off Extreme Demands and Negotiate in Good Faith In the face of continued demands by Verizon for contract concessions that would take much of its unionized workforce back to 1960s levels of wages, benefits and working conditions, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America tonight went on strike. Six weeks of negotiations between the IBEW, CWA and Verizon produced no progress as the contract covering 45,000 workers from Massachusetts to Virginia expired at the stroke of midnight. “If Verizon had shown any good faith effort to negotiate honestly, our members would still be on the job,” said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill. “Instead, they turned their backs on any attempts to reach a reasonable settlement. We cannot stand by while one of the richest, most successful corporations in the world joins the race to decimate the middle class of this country. We remain ready to meet with Verizon to work out a fair agreement, but at this point, we had no choice.” Verizon has revenues of $100 billion and net profits of $6 billion. Verizon Wireless just paid its parent company and Vodaphone a $10 billion dividend.Verizon Chairman Ivan Seidenberg is paid 300 times what an average worker earns, and other top executives have been paid lucrative compensation packages. The IBEW represents 12,800 workers at Verizon primarily in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey, with smaller units in Pennsylvania and upstate New York. Additional information can be found at: www.ibew.org; www.ibew2222.org; www.ibew827.com
August 6, 2011 8:30 p.m. For immediate release: Contact: August 6, 2011, 8:30 p.m. Jim Spellane, 202/728-6014 Statement of Edwin D. Hill, IBEW International President, on Contract Negotiations with Verizon We are disappointed but not surprised that the talks with Verizon on a contract covering 45,000 employees in the Northeast region are on the point of breaking down. Verizon has not significantly budged from the extreme set of giveback proposals they put on the table on July 1. As we approach the midnight deadline, negotiators for the IBEW and CWA have yet to see any sign that the company is serious about bargaining. Verizon has advanced the spin that it needs to make itself competitive in the changing telecommunications industry. In doing so, they are asking their workers and the public to compare one of the most cutting-edge telecommunications corporations with low-wage poor service competitors. This is a company with $100 billion in revenue and net profits of $6 billion. Verizon Wireless just paid its parent company and Vodaphone a $10 billion dividend.Verizon Chairman Ivan Seidenberg is paid 300 times what an average worker earns. The top five company executives were paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars over the past four years. If a company like this is not willing to provide wages and benefits to enable its workers to be part of the mainstream middle class in America, then all who work for a living have reason to fear. In the few hours remaining before the expiration of the contract, we call on Verizon to move from its ironclad resistance to good wages, fair working conditions and decent benefits and instead view its workforce as an asset to continued profitability and progress. This group of Verizon workers is prepared to make the strongest possible stand not just for their own contract but for workers everywhere by saying no to the race to the bottom. ‘We Will Not Go Back’Thousands Rally at Verizon’s N.Y. Headquarters
August 3, 2011
More than 10,000 Verizon employees throughout the Northeast rallied outside the company’s New York City headquarters on July 30, sending a message of solidarity against what some are calling the most aggressive anti-worker agenda the company has ever put forth during contract talks.
Negotiations began June 22 between the company and its two unions, the IBEW and Communication Workers of America. Verizon, which earned more than $2.5 billion in profits last year, has demanded pension freezes, increased employee health care payments and proposals that could threaten job security for more than 45,000 workers in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions. IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill was one of a handful of labor leaders, local politicians and community activists who addressed the crowd:
The IBEW represents about 12,850 Verizon employees in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. The members' three-year contract expires August 6. Members overwhelmingly voted for strike authorization last week if negotiations come to a standstil East Windsor, N.J., Local 827 Business Manager Bill Huber is leading negotiations in New Jersey:
About 10,000 IBEW and CWA members marched at a similar rally during contract negotiations in 2008. Labor leaders say that the outcome of the contract negotiations will have a ripple effect throughout the industry, potentially setting the tenor for how similar companies will treat their worke “This is about the future of the telecom industry,” Huber said, noting that Verizon has successfully blocked organizing in its wireless division as technology has moved away from copper landlines and fiber optics – sectors rich with union density:
Click here to watch video of speeches from the rally. Visit the Web sites for Local 827 and Boston Local 2222 for more information from the rally and on the continuing negotiations. A photo album of the event is also available online. Click here to read more about the negotiations in the July Electrical Worker.
Verizon Bargaining – IBEW Membership DataSystem Council T-6 (Mass., N.H. and R.I. Locals)
Boston Local 2222 Braintree, Mass., Local 2313 Manchester, N.H., Local 2320 Middleton, Mass., Local 2321 Middleboro, Mass., Local 2322 Cranston, R.I., Local 2323 Springfield, Mass., Local 2324 Worcester, Mass., Local 2325 Approximate total members: 6,500 East Windsor, N.J., Local 827Approximate total members: 5,400 Syracuse, N.Y., Local 2213Approximate total members: 650 Philadelphia Local 1944Approximate total members: 300 Approximate total IBEW membership working for Verizon: 12,850 |