Verizon Workers Set Hard Wednesday Strike Deadline Verizon may be facing a strike among union workers, according to new statements by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Verizon's union workers haven't been able to negotiate a new deal with Verizon since their original contract expired last summer. As such the CWA has issued an announcement saying they're setting a hard strike deadline of 6am Wednesday, April 13. 40,000 Verizon workers could walk off the job, leaving the company and its FiOS & DSL users with a support headache later this week.

"More and more, Americans are outraged by what some of the nation’s wealthiest corporations have done to working people over the last 30 years, and Verizon is becoming the poster child for everything that people in this country are angry about," the CWA said of the strike threat. "This very profitable company wants to push people down. And it wants to push communities down by not fully repairing the network and by not building out FIOS." Negotiations for a new contract began in June 2015, and the workers’ contract expired on August 1, last year. According to the CWA, Verizon is pushing to offshore a significant volume of additional support, slashing benefits, and "freezing pensions at 30 years of service and forcing retirees to pay extremely high health care costs." “For months and months, we’ve made every effort to reach a fair agreement at the bargaining table,” said Myles Calvey, IBEW Local 2222 business manager and chairman, T-6 Verizon New England. “We’ve offered Verizon hundreds of millions of dollars in cost savings and yet they still refuse to provide basic job security for workers. We have to take a stand now for our families and every American worker.” Verizon has issued its own press release claiming to "set the record straight." The company says the the CWA would rather "make strike threats than constructively engage at the bargaining table," but remains committed to ongoing negotiations. But Verizon claims that should a strike happen, the company is ready. "We have trained thousands of non-union Verizon employees to carry out virtually every job function handled by our represented workforce – from making repairs on poles to responding to inquiries in our call centers," says Verizon. "We know the unions' strike order will be a hardship and pose challenges for our employees, but as a 24x7 customer service company, our contingency plans are in place and our company will continue to serve those who rely on us." "We have trained thousands of non-union Verizon employees to carry out virtually every job function handled by our represented workforce – from making repairs on poles to responding to inquiries in our call centers," says Verizon. "We know the unions' strike order will be a hardship and pose challenges for our employees, but as a 24x7 customer service company, our contingency plans are in place and our company will continue to serve those who rely on us."







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Most recommended from 72 comments



chuch

join:2001-04-11

Tampa, FL 44 recommendations chuch Member Surprise? There's only one thing Verizon hates more than it's customers - It's employees...

Zenit

The system is the solution

Premium Member

join:2012-05-07

Purcellville, VA 25 recommendations Zenit Premium Member A reminder to all



While Verizon may have changed its logo to have a more cute check mark, it still does not hide the fact that VZ management is, and always will be:

EliteData

EliteData

Premium Member

join:2003-07-06

Hampton Bays, NY 24 recommendations EliteData Premium Member corporate greed

at

its

finest PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

join:2013-03-10

Zubrowka USA 18 recommendations PX Eliezer1 Premium Member Verizon wastes SO much money.... Verizon has wasted so much money on things like buying AOL, the current proposal for them to buy Yahoo, Verizon's silly new "Hum" service, etc.



God forbid they should actually try to work with the unions. pittpete1

join:2009-06-12 13 recommendations pittpete1 Member Verizon....... Wireless is saturated to a point there is no where else to grab cash from.

FIOS is profitable.

Verizon doesnt care about it's customers.

Lowell didnt build this company.

ILpt4U

Premium Member

join:2006-11-12

Saint Louis, MO 12 recommendations ILpt4U Premium Member IBEW & CWA Support Chiming in to voice my support for all my IBEW and CWA Brothers and Sisters in Verizonland.



The IBEW and AT&T contract will be up next summer, and who knows what we may face



Solidarity! mydsl

join:2011-08-03

united state 12 recommendations mydsl Member GREED! This is why the middle class is dying in this country. I don't care what your politics are, you should support these workers. The company is a 200 billion dollar juggernaut with a license to print money, but they still feel the need to get concessions from the workers? And the executives are all multi millionaires who certainly aren't going to lower their own compensation. Disgraceful!

woody7

Premium Member

join:2000-10-13

Torrance, CA 7 recommendations woody7 Premium Member hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm And we should trust what the corporations say because..................................... wkm001

join:2009-12-14 5 recommendations wkm001 Member Go ahead and down vote me If we can't have job security we will refuse to work...



This makes sense right? My sentiment was pretty unpopular last time they threatened to strike.