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Strikers reject Verizon offer, receive solidarity

‘We’ll stay out one day longer, one day stronger!’

Militant/Jane Harris

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The East Coast strike of 39,000 unionists against telecommunications giant Verizon, the largest strike in the U.S. since the last Verizon walkout five years ago, is making an impact across the country.

Hundreds of members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers rallied here April 29 to tell Verizon they weren’t accepting the “last, best and final” offer the company had presented the previous day.

Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Virginia went on strike April 13 after 10 months of fruitless contract negotiations. Their previous contract expired Aug. 1.

The company cut off health care benefits for strikers and their families May 1.

Verizon, which made an operating profit of $30 billion last year, overnighted a letter from Executive Vice President Marc Reed outlining the company’s offer to every striking employee.

“To Mr. Reed — it’s just your final best offer if we take it, and we won’t take it!” IBEW Local 827 President Robert Speer told the rally, which erupted in cheering and chants of “One day longer, one day stronger.” Members of the painters union and the Amalgamated Transit Union were there to show their support.

Verizon’s latest offer upped the wage increase from 6.5 to 7.5 percent over three years. Reed’s letter claimed the raise “will be greater than the average increase in healthcare expense over the life of the contract,” which most strikers dispute. The company also pledged that if the unions sign the agreement by May 20, demands for changes in involuntary temporary work assignments to another state and modifications in Sunday premium pay would be dropped.

“There was no movement on the closing of call centers” in the offer, an April 28 CWA District 1 bargaining report commented. “They gave us an insulting proposal on contracting out plant work that does not return any contracted work to the bargaining unit, but might possibly slow down further contracting out in the future.” Verizon proposes reducing disability benefits as well.

Support for strike

At the rally Tom Sterlacci, who pickets a Verizon work center in Secaucus described the support the strikers receive. “All day people roll down the window and say, ‘We’re with you.’ They bring water and coffee. There’s been UPS drivers, a couple of Walmart workers and county garbage collectors.”

Dawn Sickles and Liz Null had been on the picket line in Manhattan since 7 a.m. when this reporter dropped by in the afternoon May 2. “Usually we start the morning at a hotel that is housing scabs. We’ve gotten the support of the hotel workers union, so many hotels have asked them to leave,” Sickles said.

Many strikers say public support for them is strong because of the economic difficulties faced by most workers. “People are upset,” Sickles said. “They’re aware of the disparities. They have kids at home in their 30s, living in the basement.”

A central issue in the strike is the company’s demand to cap pensions after 30 years of service and revise the calculations used to set lump sum retirement payments, Null said. The company’s offer includes incentives for voluntary early retirement.

“We recognize why they are downsizing with the change in technology,” Null said. “But they are so mean-spirited. They track workers with a GPS. If you come in a minute late they make you stand against the wall like you’re in elementary school.”

‘Bosses try to make unions look bad’

“What’s happening to us has been happening to a lot of workers,” Rudy Destin told theat a Brooklyn picket line May 2. “Motown was called that because it was Motor City, the heart of blue collar work. Now Michigan has become a ‘right-to-work’ state and they want to do the same in New York. The bosses are trying to make the union into something bad — like a drug cartel.” Workers driving past honked in solidarity as pickets chanted, “Every job a union job!” and “New York is a union town!”

Verizon considers Washington, Maryland and Delaware one service region, technician Lapreia Terry said at a May 2 picket line at a wireless store in Washington, D.C. Previously, when workers accepted two-week assignments away from their workstation, Verizon footed the bill for lodging. “Now they want us to go for 60 days at a time and pay our own lodging,” she said.

A National Day of Action May 5 will include strike rallies and will expand picketing at Verizon Wireless stores across the country with the help of CWA districts and other unions.

Glova Scott in Washington, D.C., contributed to this article.





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