Can you hear us now?
Verizon strikers fight for all workers
By
Kathy Durkin
Published Aug 17, 2011 5:12 PM
CWA strikers and supporters leafleted at the first
Philadelphia Eagles football game of the season Aug. 11.
WW photo: Joseph Piette
|
Boston School Bus Drivers
Local 8751 joins the picket
line Aug. 11.
WW photo
|
The heroic 45,000-strong strike against Verizon continues throughout the
Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, as workers, including many women, African
Americans and Latinos/as, rail against the corporate monolith’s fierce
anti-union assault.
Picketers walk outside Verizon and Verizon Wireless offices, call centers,
phone stores, garages and hundreds of workplaces from coast to coast. The lines
are strong and growing. “Workers are being joined on the line by
Communication Workers of America members from other companies and members of
other unions as the battle continues to get the company to start bargaining
seriously,” reports the CWA website.
CWA Local 9575 in Camarillo, Calif., which is picketing Verizon Wireless
stores, reports widespread support and solidarity for the East Coast strike
“from private and public sector union members, community and religious
organizations, Verizon wireline and wireless customers, and thousands of
others.” The union says United Postal Service drivers, letter carriers,
caterers and trash haulers won’t cross picket lines. Passersby are
bringing strikers food and water; and customers are asking how to help the
strike. In one day, 15,000 people signed petitions demanding the company
bargain in good faith.
Verizon insisted on 100 concessions from the workers during contract
negotiations, stripping away 50 years of hard-won benefits. The CWA and
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represent the landline
workers, called a strike on Aug. 7 after the contract expired. Strike votes
were nearly unanimous.
When negotiations restarted on Aug. 10, Verizon hadn’t budged from the
demands they made when talks began on June 22. Although proclaiming it must cut
wages and benefits and outsource jobs to be “competitive” in a
mostly nonunion industry, Verizon, unscathed by the recession, is one of the
top 10 wealthiest U.S. corporations. The company earns $108 billion a year and
$7 billion in profits. Verizon didn’t pay federal taxes last year —
and even maneuvered a $1.3 billion tax rebate!
The corporation seeks even more profits by demanding $1 billion in concessions
— $20,000 per worker per year — by gutting vital benefits.
Its aim to eliminate a paid holiday on Martin Luther King Jr. Day is also a
right-wing jab at the Civil Rights Movement.
Workers say Verizon seeks to eliminate “middle-class” jobs and
force them to accept rollbacks in wages and benefits to pre-union levels,
similar to the paltry benefits of non-union employees in the wireless division
— where Verizon has viciously fought union drives. Seeing the threat of
Wal-Mart-type conditions, with no benefits or job security, workers were forced
to strike since they had nothing to lose. They had to fight back.
Corporate war on unions
Corporations and their governmental representatives are waging a war on unions
and their members. The collusion between the state and corporations has been
seen in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and New Jersey, where governors and state
legislators passed laws undermining public sector unions and collective
bargaining rights.
Now Verizon, a private corporation, is getting help from its class allies in
state and city administrations, as it tries to do the same thing. Clearly, the
state is a tool of the super-rich corporate owners; it’s not a neutral
body. It’s anti-union. The courts and the police are antagonistic to the
working class and will suppress their struggles to protect the interests of
business owners and their property — unless a monumental workers’
struggle pushes them back.
The police, despite having their own unions, invariably act as agents for big
business and put down workers’ struggles, even if their own families are
on picket lines.
Verizon quickly got court injunctions in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and
Delaware to undermine the picket lines and restrict strike activity. The New
York injunction restricts pickets to six to 50 people in front of Verizon
facilities or worksites. Mass picketing must be at least 25 feet from an
entrance.
New York City billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg helped Verizon by assigning
police to intimidate strikers and ensure that truckloads of management
strikebreakers, many from out of state, get into their facilities. This is done
at the expense of taxpayers — mostly workers — who pay cops’
salaries. It hasn’t cost Verizon a nickel.
However, the strikers are using creative tactics and organizing mobile pickets
that move quickly to protest strikebreakers wherever they turn up. Text
messaging and Twitter facilitate rapid communication among squads. This is
strengthening the strike.
Strike solidarity growing
In the face of corporate-state collusion, what is key is the strength of the
labor movement and the unity between public and private sector unions —
and community support. That unity and class solidarity are developing.
Supporters are honking car horns, cheering and clapping at picket sites.
Customers are turning away. Passersby are thanking picketers outside Verizon
Wireless stores. There is a lot of public sympathy due to the vicious assault
on the workers.
Additionally, members of many unions are joining picket lines, bolstering
strikers’ morale, as labor leaders call for their members to support the
strike. The 1.4 million-member Teamsters union told its UPS drivers not to
cross picket lines to deliver to Verizon stores. They aren’t.
New York state AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes calls for statewide union support
and asks members to join picket lines. So has Civil Service Employees
Association/American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
President Danny Donohue. Hughes stresses, “We are ONE — together we
will stand with our CWA and IBEW brothers and sisters fighting for a fair
contract.” Donohue explained the importance of solidarity in “these
difficult times.” (www.csealocal1000.org)
AFSCME District Council 37 is providing space in its nearby headquarters for
strikers picketing a main New York City site so they can rest during
breaks.
Teamsters, New York State United Teachers and CSEA/AFSCME members have rallied
with Long Island, N.Y., picketers. Service Employees Local 32BJ joined CWA and
IBEW strikers, other labor and community activists and clergy at a vigil
opposing Verizon Chairperson Ivan Seidenberg.
Progressive educators, parents and community activists and unions have joined
with CWA to object to New York City Department of Education awarding a $120
million contract to Verizon.
In Boston, the Boston School Bus Drivers, Steelworkers Local 8751 and community
supporters are walking picket lines with IBEW Local 2222.
The AFL-CIO NOW blog cites the Missouri AFL-CIO: “The fight for Verizon
workers is the fight for all of us,” in a statement publicizing a
statewide rally in Creve Coeur, Mo.
This strike is critical. “If we let Verizon succeed, major corporations
will be using it as a model for destroying the bargaining rights and living
standards for all union members,” said CWA Local 9575 President Lisa
Shafer. (cwa-union.org, Aug. 11)
IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill said, “What we are seeing as
this strike unfolds is the fruit of 30 years of unremitting class warfare waged
by corporate America and their political allies. Solidarity is our foremost
— indeed our only — weapon to fight back against those who would
condemn us to a life of subservience.” (www.ibew.org, Aug. 13)
To get involved, sign petitions and find picket line locations, see
www.cwa-union.org and www.ibew.org.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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