We haven’t had a really large labor strike in a while, so this action from Verizon repair technicians, FiOS installers and call center workers is unusual. Verizon is really trying to eliminate many of the gains made by the Communication Workers union over the years, so the striking workers have little recourse but to strike. Here are Verizon’s demands:
Continued contracting out of work to low-wage contractors, which means more outsourcing of good jobs overseas.
Eliminating disability benefits for workers injured while on the job.
Elimination of all job security provisions.
Eliminating paid sick days for new hires and limiting them to no more than five for any workers.
Freezing pensions for current workers and eliminating them for future employees.
Replacing the current high-quality health care plan with a high-deductible plan requiring up to $6,800 in additional costs.
Verizon is on pace for a $6.9 billion net profit so far this year, incidentally. It’s not like this effort seeks to keep the company profitable. This is motivated mainly by corporate greed.
Most of the striking workers are in the wireline portion of the business, although the FiOS installers are key to building out the next generation of Verizon profits. Verizon basically wants to knuckle under the union in the wireline sector, while record profits come in from the nonunion Verizon Wireless. They haven’t budged in negotiations for six weeks.
The top five executives at Verizon have made $258 million the past four years. In this context, nickel and diming the rank and file workers is absurd.
