The Importance of the Verizon Strike

Last week, Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money expressed cautious hope about the revitalized union movement:

There’s been a surprising number of union victories of late. I discuss several of them in my new piece at Alternet and consider their possible implications.

With all of this pretty good to great news all of a sudden, one wonders, is this coincidence? Or is it a sign of a rejuvenated labor movement ready to take on aggressive corporate attempts to destroy worker organizations in order to promote an increased profit line? It’s important not to overstate the impact of the labor-led protests in Madison against Scott Walker’s anti-union bill. Lowell Peterson noted, “What we witnessed in Wisconsin was very inspiring but the voting at nonfiction basic cable production companies was mostly done before the Wisconsin gov started slinging his six-gun. Organizing requires hard, patient work, and folks have to believe the union can make a difference in their lives. I think we have made that case to folks.”

That’s absolutely true, but at the same time the climate of unionization is important. Workers have historically joined unions when the media reports positively about them and when the government plays a neutral role in union elections rather than openly supporting employers. The Republican overreach in Wisconsin, Ohio and other traditionally pro-union states led to a great deal of attention for unions. Obama’s NLRB is making a real difference in working people’s lives.

But while these factors are important, the real credit goes to the people bravely risking their jobs to improve their lot and that of all workers. Workers may have tough employment prospects if they lose their jobs through union organizing, but the increasingly desperate economy has also helped many understand that employers will not take care of them and that their best chance for a respectable paycheck lies in uniting with their fellow employees. We must work to build off these recent victories to make the labor movement a force in America again. The survival of middle-class America depends on it.

Then Verizon went on strike.

Kenneth Quinnell at Crooks and Liars:

More than 40,000 workers -- members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers -- went on strike (last) week after Verizon refused to even begin to bargain fairly with the workers. The workers on strike include "telephone field technicians, call center workers and cable installers from Massachusetts to Virginia."

Verizon has canceled multiple bargaining sessions and refuses to back down from any of their original concession requests, something that flies in the face of the basic idea of negotiating. Workers say they are prepared to return to work as soon as management shows a willingness to sit down and work out a fair agreement.

There is no need for Verizon to pursue the level of cuts to compensation for their workers that they are after. Verizon had a $6 billion profit last year (on revenues of $108 billion) and just paid a $10 billion dividend. Over the last four years, the company has a total of more than $19 billion in profits. Verizon's profits not only make them one of the richest and most successful companies in the country, they are outperforming the overall communications industry. The company's chair, Ivan Seidenberg makes more than 300 times what the average Verizon worker makes. The top five executives have been paid more than $250 million in the past four years. On top of all this, it turns out Verizon not only paid $0 in federal taxes last year, they also received $1 billion in subsidies.

Verizon is looking for $1 billion in concessions, an average of $20,000 per family that is supported by a Verizon worker, and will not back down from any of their demands. The workers, on the other hand, have shown a willingness to make concessions, particularly when it comes to health care benefits.

The extreme concessions Verizon is seeking include:

- 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's attack on its workers is not new. In recent years, it has cut is percentage of unionized jobs nearly in half. The company has also outsourced more than 25,000 jobs. Verizon's cell phone division is mostly non-union.

The assault on Verizon's workers is part of a larger battle taking place across the country, where conservatives in government and business are blaming unions and working families for larger problems that unions either have nothing to do with or the alleged problems don't even exist. Corporate profits are at the highest proportion of the national income that has ever been recorded, and they continue to increase. At the same time, the percentage of national income that makes up wages has slipped below 50 percent of the overall total for the first time in recorded history, and the decline goes on. Not surprisingly, Verizon is an active member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the same organization behind the assaults on unions in numerous states.

Want to help? Quinnell has what you need:

For those who are following along with the Verizon strike and want to do what you can do to get involved, there are a bunch of ways for you to get directly involved or show your solidarity. Forty-five thousand Verizon workers are on strike because the massively profitable company, which pays no taxes, is demanding major cuts in employee compensation and refuses to negotiate fairly with workers. The Communications Workers of America filed a unfair labor practice grievance again Verizon on Friday.

One creative way to get involved is the "What Verizon's Name Means" contest sponsored by the CWA. The union is asking creative supporters to come up with a translation that reveals what Verizon's name really means.

If you are in the area, you can use this tool to find a picket line anywhere from Virginia to New York. If you are joining the strike, you can print leaflets before you go.

You can also send a letter to Verizon asking them to negotiate fairly.

Daily Kos also has a petition in support of the striking workers. Organizations interested in supporting the strike should contact CWA directly.

Other ways to keep up with the latest on the strike is to sign up for text messages from CWA, support the strike on Facebook, and by changing your Facebook and Twitter status to show your solidarity.

Meanwhile, Verizon is honoring the 150-year-old tradition of owners punishing striking workers:

Laura Clawson at Daily Kos reports:

Members recently received letters from Verizon announcing that it is canceling group benefit plans for striking workers. This is an action which employers often take in strike situations to try unsettle the resolve of the strikers.

At CWA, we have faced this issue many times in the past and always protected our members and their families so that no one is harmed as a result of management’s ruthless act. This will be true for this strike as well.

Rather than attempting to negotiate a fair settlement with the workers, Verizon has decided to go the punitive route, trying to break the striking workers. Verizon has never attempted to approach this situation in good faith and this is another example of that. The Communications Workers of America say they are familiar with the tactic, though, and that they will make sure to take care of the working families affected by this move.

Why should you care?

Loomis again:

Mark Engler has an excellent discussion of why the Verizon strike is so important, or as he puts it, the next Wisconsin:

The parallel to Wisconsin is apt for several reasons. First, like the Republican elected officials in their attacks on unionized schoolteachers and other public employees, Verizon is taking aim at one of the last bastions of the American middle class. As a main strategy in its public relations, the company is trying to stoke resentment about the fact that the CWA and IBEW workers actually have living-wage jobs. It is hoping that “I don’t have a pension, why should they” logic will carry the day.

Accordingly, on Wednesday Verizon took out a full-page ad in the Philadelphia Inquirer suggesting that a typical employee makes $80,600 in annual pay and $42,000 in benefits. The union disputes this claim, contending that salaries are generally in the $60,000 to $77,000 range, and that benefits are less costly than the company would suggest. But, regardless, the debate over numbers misses some critical questions: What’s wrong with workers sharing in the profits of a healthy corporation? Isn’t that the way our economy is supposed to work?

(On a side note, it’s always a treat when companies plead poverty at the negotiating table and then turn around and spend big bucks on media spots, anti-union consultants, and pricey PR firms—but that’s another story.)

The fate of 45,000 middle-class jobs is a big deal for all of America. Last month, the entire U.S. economy had a net gain of only 117,000 jobs. Not only is that for the whole country, it represents a pretty decent month given the numbers from the past year. Furthermore, almost all of the new jobs now being created are low-wage. Given these realities—and the fact that concentrating all wealth in the hands of the rich is a very bad strategy for creating the kind of demand the economy needs to rebound—what happens to the Verizon workers is a matter of broad public concern.

If the assault on the middle class isn’t halted here, there will be another battle and another and another until every right working people have gained over the past century is eliminated.

Liberals support unions because unions are the strongest protection workers have against the greed and corruption of corporate owners.