CWA claims 86% of workers approve Verizon strike
The Communications Workers of America over the weekend reported 86% of Verizon Communication employees represented by the labor group voted to authorize a strike should the two parties fail to come to a labor agreement.
The current agreement, which covers approximately 38,000 CWA and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers members, is set to expire at midnight on Aug. 1. CWA noted on July 21 that it had rejected Verizon’s last contract.
Verizon is looking to trim costs from its wireline operations, which through the first half of the year posted $909 million in segment income compared to $394 million for the first half of 2014. Verizon’s overall revenue, including its wireless division, posted a 15.7% dip in net income through the first half of the year compared with 2014.
Verizon earlier this year entered into an agreement to sell off wireline properties in California, Florida and Texas for $10.5 billion to Frontier Communications. The deal also calls for Frontier to take on approximately 11,000 Verizon employees as part of the transaction.
According to the unions, Verizon has asked them to make concessions in the negotiations including downsizing retirement plans, allowing for more outsourcing and increasing health care contributions for members. The labor unions are upset that Verizon is asking them to sacrifice in spite of huge profits and executive salaries for the company in recent years. Many are calling for Verizon’s top brass to take the hit instead.
“Our members are clear and they are determined – they reject management’s harsh concessionary demands, including the elimination of job security, sharp increases in workers’ health care costs and slashing retirement security,” stated Dennis Trainor, VP for CWA District One, in a statement following the weekend rally.
When CWA and IBEW last called a strike in 2011, it led to 45,000 Verizon workers walking off the job. The two-week strike was painful to both the company and union members. Verizon’s stock fell 2% on the first day of the strike and many employees went the entire strike without pay. Eventually both sides reached a compromise.
In spite of the heated negotiations, Verizon has said it’s not anti-union.
“Verizon recognizes and respects the right of workers to unionize and engage in collective bargaining,” Verizon spokesman Richard Young told RCR Wireless News earlier this month. “We have a long history of working successfully with the CWA and IBEW, and we expect that to happen this time as well. However, keep in mind, we provide critical communications services of millions of consumers and businesses, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Even while we’re engaged in the bargaining process, we must still take appropriate measures that make certain our customers are not affected by any disruption in usual business activities.”
However, Verizon is preparing for a potential work stoppage. The company recently began distributing an application to its non-union employees that will allow them to document bad behavior by union workers in the event of a work stoppage. The app is designed to allow the user to take a geotagged photo documenting the time and location of the photo, and can then write a brief incident report before forwarding the whole thing to Verizon corporate security, which will maintain a database of such reports.
Verizon, for its part, insists that the app is not a means to intimidate union workers.
“The app serves three primary purposes: the first is a means for our management employees to report or document an unsafe situation, unlawful act, or violation of our code of conduct, and it will also be used by managers who have been assigned to these union positions for the duration of the strike to ask questions about installations or repairs they are handling,” Amy Seifer, Verizon associate general counsel for labor and employment, told RCR Wireless News. “It also provides a means for our employees to submit suggestions on process improvements.”
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