Can you hear them now?
Verizon worker victory
By G. Dunkel
Verizon lost and the Communication Workers of
America won. 2,300 workers laid off a week before last
Christmas must be rehired with back pay, according to an
arbitrator's decision released July 10. Workers reassigned to
cover these slots will get their original jobs back.
This victory, "will give 2,300 people their lives back,"
said Larry Mancino, vice president of CWA District One. "That's
how important this decision is."
According to the CWA, the back pay amounts to $100 million.
Verizon, naturally, says the figure is much lower.
The arbitrator ruled that the external events cited by the
company to justify these layoffs--a faltering economy and
increased competition--did not meet the requirements laid out
in the contract.
Since this was an arbitrator's decision, it is final and the
company can't appeal it. But the contract between Verizon and
the CWA and IBEW--the electrical workers' union which
represents some of Verizon's workers--expires Aug. 2.
This contract battle was going to be difficult to settle
before the ruling. It is now going to be more difficult.
Verizon is a very profitable company, making $4.08 billion
last year and paying its two top executives a total of $40
million a year.
The company is in the telecommunication industry, which is
subject to sweeping changes and fierce competition.
Most of Verizon's competitors are non union and so Verizon
wants to drive its labor costs down to their level. So it is
demanding steep reductions in its health-care costs, a tight
absenteeism policy and the right to "flexibility"--that is to
reassign workers to shifts and areas at the company's
convenience.
Some union members think Verizon wants a strike as a test of
how many employees it actually needs to run its 57-million-line
network. The actual operation of its network is automated, but
repairs and installations are not, so personnel levels are hard
to calculate.
Loosing the 2,300 workers in New York was noticeable. The
Public Service Com mission in New York issued a scathing report
about Verizon's poor service after the layoffs and forbade it
to raise its prices for three months.
"I think management is really trying to bust the union on
this one," Conversent CEO Robert Shanahan told the Boston
Globe, July 7. "I think they're prepared to let them strike
until they break. As a result, every line we need that we can
get in now, we're trying to get in." Conversent is a telephone
company in Massachusetts that rents some of its lines from
Verizon.
According to the July 12 St. Petersburg Times, Verizon is
forcing non-union employees to attend a week of 12-hours a day
training sessions to learn the basics of pole climbing, phone
line installation and other jobs. Whether enough replacements
can be trained and whether the supervisors will have the
physical stamina needed is another question. Retired
supervisors are refusing to come back because Verizon has
already cut their benefits.
While the company might be planning to bust the union, the
CWA is not going to lie down and roll over. The CWA led a
bitter 100-day walkout at Verizon's predecessor Nynex in 1989,
which won important benefits. They held a major demonstration
June 16 in front of the PSC's headquarters in Manhattan to
raise the issue of how Verizon's layoffs affect service.
They have told the company that they are going to mobilize
and fight.
Reprinted from the July 24, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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