News

Verizon Bargaining 2011: Report # 16

03 Aug, 2011

At the Regional bargaining table today, the company came to answer questions we asked last week concerning their proposal on call sharing. As the meeting progressed, it was increasingly clear the company did not have answers to many of the questions we asked. When the company could not answer the questions about the data they provided they called a “do-over” and said they’d have to get back to us with the corrected information. The bargaining session ended with the union committee once again rejecting many of the most retrogressive proposals the company placed on the table from day one. The company response was to inform us they are still interested in pursuing those proposals.

That means they are still trying to force us to go back to the days when the company could hold up your wage increases based on your supervisor’s subjective evaluation of your performance. They want to do away with the 18% vacation rule, gut differential language and eliminate overtime caps. They still want to freeze your pension and do away with the pension plan. They also want to cut disability benefits. They want active members as well as retirees to pay a portion of healthcare costs, including a high deductible. This is in addition to the co pays members already pay for office visits and prescription drugs.

The Company seems to spend more time sending messages to our members giving them “bargaining facts” than they spend at the bargaining table. The Company’s “ bargaining facts” e-mailed today to our members stated that key issues are being explored at the bargaining table, yet the issues listed were only briefly mentioned at a June meeting and never raised again.

With four days to go until contract expiration, the company still persists with a list of demands they have to know our members will not accept. They still believe our members are ready to roll over and give up. It’s up to every member to convince them otherwise. Turn up the heat in the workplace. We’re down to the wire here and our members shouldn’t be doing anything that helps this company prepare for whatever happens Saturday at midnight.

Once again, Verizon is not a company in financial trouble. What they have brought to these negotiations is an insult to every one of our members and every member needs to let them know we will not stand for it. Verizon seems hell-bent on destroying the middle class jobs CWA and IBEW have fought so hard to create over the last 50 years of collective bargaining. It is time that Verizon invests in America and brings Good Jobs back into the bargaining unit. Corporations like Verizon should not be destroying middle class jobs. They should be helping to rebuild the American economy and sharing their success with the workforce that made success possible.