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Verizon Workers Join Wall Street, Boston Protests

October 11, 2011

Boston Local 2222 is the latest union to join the massive protests against Wall Street that have electrified the nation.

The Occupy Wall Street movement started more than two weeks ago, when young activists poured into Zuccotti Park to protest the financial interests they blame for helping to crash the economy, while getting bailed out with taxpayer money.

Since then, the movement has spread to more than 400 cities and towns across North America, including Boston.

Local 2222 member Paul Feeney, a Verizon technician, presented the resolution in support of the Occupy Boston movement at the local’s monthly meeting Oct. 5.

Said Feeney:

It is my hope that our local union offers its full support to the grassroots movement that is sweeping this country. As we know all too well, the nation’s largest corporations, including Verizon, pay zero in federal taxes and effectively skirt their responsibility to our society. This corporate greed, along with the systemic failure of the banks that fund them, has caused enormous suffering, joblessness and homelessness.

Local 2222 joined Boston Local 103, which represents inside wiremen, in supporting the movement, along with the state AFL-CIO, SEIU Local 1199 and Local 7 of the Iron Workers.

Feeney knows firsthand about taking on corporate greed. This August, he, along with more than 45,000 workers from New England to Virginia walked off the job and took to the picket line for nearly two weeks to protest the company’s demand for more than $1 billion in cuts, which would have amounted to a pay cut of more than $20,000 per worker. 

Verizon boasted more than $10 billion in profits in 2010, and paid out $258 million in bonuses to its top executives.

The 14-year Verizon employee says workers greatly valued the solidarity they received from local students and young activists during the strike and wanted to return the favor:

None of us will forget all the University of Massachusetts students who came down to our picket line, bringing us pizza and water. Now it is our turn to stand with them.

Feeney, who also serves as the local’s legislative director, says IBEW members learned that they could not take on a massive corporation like Verizon by themselves:

If it was not for the support we got from community groups, faith leaders and the young people, we wouldn’t have had a chance.

The IBEW and CWA called off the strike after Verizon agreed to temporarily extend the expired contract – backing off its concessionary demands for the moment.  But, says Local 2222 Business Manager Myles Calvey, who also serves on the International Executive Council, both unions continue to build public pressure on the company for a just settlement.

He says:

We know justice won’t be won by asking greedy employers for permission or waiting for politicians to pass laws. That’s why we hope that these young activists will stand their ground in the battle against corporate greed – on Wall Street and across the country

On Oct. 12, Local 2222 plans to march from Verizon headquarters in downtown Boston to Dewey Square, where Occupy Boston activists are camped out to show the connection between their struggle and the growing grassroots movement against corporate greed.

Says Feeney:

We’re the cradle of liberty right here, home of the real Tea Party, and that reminds us that sometimes you have to take to the streets to make your voice heard. We will read our statement of solidarity with the protestors, but most importantly we want to listen to them and hear their issues.

Says Calvey about the protests:

Only by joining forces, can ‘We the People’ gain the power to turn our country – and this disastrous economy – around.

Beyond Boston, IBEW members around the country have been joining the movement.

Tampa, Fla., Local 824 members Noah Kaaa and Wendell Greenhalgh, travelled from Dade City to join the Occupy Tampa protest, carrying a sign that said “Enuff is enuff.”

Kaaa told the Tampa Tribune:

I’m just fed up with the direction that the country is going…Most people are struggling.

Go to the Occupy Together Web site to find out about events in your area.

Photo used under a Creative Commons License from Flickr user waywuwei.