In-plant strategy saves 78,000 jobs
Verizon blinks in contract battle
By Milt Neidenberg
Chalk this one up as saving 78,000 jobs.
On Sept. 4, the Communication Workers of America and the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers reached a
tentative five-year agreement with Verizon, the largest
telecommunications corporation in the country. Verizon had been
determined to wipe job security language off the books. It
didn't happen.
Over 78,000 members of both unions remained strong and
united to protect their jobs. The agreement, covering telephone
operators and technicians in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic
regions, has yet to be ratified by members of both unions.
Verizon had been poised to eliminate thousands of jobs and
move telephone technicians and operators out of their work
areas and communities. The company had to admit that with the
new contract "the current job security protections will remain
in place. Existing rules related to Verizon's ability to move
work will remain unchanged." (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 5)
This was confirmed by Morton Bahr, president of the CWA, the
largest union at Verizon: "This settlement achieves our major
goals of protecting our members' job security and the health
care benefits of both active and retired employees." (New York
Times Sept. 5)
The struggle to save jobs is critical. The day following the
tentative Verizon agreement, the Labor Department announced
that 93,000 jobs were lost in August--nearly half in
manufacturing. It was the largest decline in four months, and
the 38th consecutive month of job losses.
The national payroll has shrunk by nearly 3 million jobs
since March 2001, the start of the recession. Those who have
stopped looking for work have more than doubled, to over half a
million, and over 9 million have suffered job losses at one
time or another during this period--a devastating loss of
income.
In a tragic irony for laid-off workers, they are daily being
reminded of strong economic growth. "Rapid Growth Seen for U.S.
Economy," was a New York Times headline on Sept. 13. "The
American economy finally seems poised to roar ahead at rates
not seen since the late 1990s," read the article. Yet it
confesses that "unemployment in the range of 6 percent is
likely to stay through the 2004 election." Others are
predicting unemployment could go higher.
Corporate bosses like Verizon, on the other hand, are
enjoying the fruits of the growing economy while trying to get
their workers to accept rule changes that would eventually add
them to the swelling unemployment lines.
Verizon's origins are in the 1997 merger of NYNEX and Bell
Atlantic, which allowed them to corner the Northeast and
Mid-Atlantic telephone market. In 1998, they added GTE, the
fourth-largest global telecommunications company in the world.
The merged company was named Verizon.
This powerful corporation began the attack as far back as
mid-June, long before the contract expired. In addition to
wanting to eliminate job security language, it demanded more
flexibility in forcing overtime, reducing absenteeism,
eliminating premium pay and threatening health and pension
benefits. It laid off 3,200 disabled union members. However, it
suffered a setback when an arbitrator ruled it was in violation
of the contract clause that barred layoffs tied to cost
cutting. The record showed booming profits.
As the Aug. 2 expiration date approached, the CWA and the
IBEW voted overwhelmingly to strike. The company lined up
30,000 managers and scabs, many of them flown in from around
the country, to break the strike. The battle lines were
drawn.
On the eve of the expiration date, Verizon began to soften
up. It appealed to the unions, saying it was in a
life-and-death competitive struggle with other
telecommunications companies like IBM, AT&T and others. In
a crowded and shrinking telecommunications market here and
around the world, it tried to persuade the unions that
management and labor were one big happy family and had common
cause in a bitter war to beat back Verizon's rivals.
Verizon blinked
The expiration date passed, the unions didn't strike, and
Verizon didn't lock out the workers. But it continued to badger
the unions about needing concessions. Both parties agreed to a
federal mediator, who immediately moved the negotiations to
Washington, D.C., and ordered them to be censored--in order to
isolate and confuse the rank and file, who had been prepared to
strike.
The union leadership refused to give in to the concessions.
Verizon blinked first.
Then, on Sept. 2, came a parallel breakthrough.
Verizon/Vodaphone Wireless--the result of another merger
completed in 1999--agreed to a five-year contract protecting
seniority rights on layoffs and transfers for 51 CWA
technicians. CWA efforts to organize 20,000 Verizon/Vodaphone
workers have been forcefully opposed.
On Sept. 4, Verizon gave in. It agreed to maintain job
security language for 78,000 CWA and IBEW members. The
tentative settlement included a 3-percent cash bonus--around
$1,600--and a 2-percent annual raise, including cost of living
increases. Pensions will increase by 11 percent, as will annual
profit-sharing bonuses. Most important, health care premiums
remain fully paid for active workers and retirees.
Employees still face increases in prescription drug and
health insurance deductibles and co-payments. Unfortunately,
the company was able to eliminate the job security language for
newly-hired employees over the five-year contract.
The company has stated that as workers who are now protected
under the job language retire, they can be replaced by workers
who are not covered under this job security guarantee.
In-plant organizing
How did the unions do it? Without using the strike weapon,
Verizon workers were able to wring out benefits with minor
concessions.
On Aug. 2, Verizon workers had cleared their desks and
lockers in preparation for a strike. They got rid of anything
that might have made it easy for 30,000 managers and scabs to
do union work. They began a campaign to pressure management
through an in-plant strategy. While it was costing management
$1 million a day to house 30,000 potential scabs, the two
unions combined pre-work and lunch-time rallies.
Workers wearing red--the union color--lined up each morning
and marched into the plant and offices in large disciplined
numbers. They chanted slogans, carried their picket signs
inside and kept them at their work places, in case negotiations
broke down.
They set up picket lines during lunch-time rallies and took
their picket signs home to repeat the tactics the following
day. Verizon was never sure if the in-plant strategy would lead
to a walkout. CWA Local 1101 shop steward Pam Galpern reported
on this in-plant strategy in Labor Notes of September 2003.
With the help of the AFL-CIO, the rank and file collected
signatures from customers who promised to drop Verizon until a
fair contract was won. The CWA, the larger of the two unions,
with 60,000 members, put out a web-based newsletter, "Unity at
Verizon," with almost daily updates of activities.
Verizon had declared a state of emergency in many areas,
eliminating the limits on forced overtime and working the rank
and file 12 hours a day, seven days a week. The company
monitored the in-plant activities and threatened reprisals.
Without a contract, the grievance procedure was not in
effect.
It was clear that the in-plant strategy was a defensive
struggle.
Significantly, the rank and file carried out the in-plant
campaign for over a month--a most difficult assignment, as
management monitored them and made them account for every
second of their time.
The contract has yet to be voted on by many local unions in
the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. But one thing is
certain. The CWA and IBEW rank and file outlasted this powerful
telecommunications monopoly. They set a splendid example of how
to wage difficult and sustained in-plant organizing. They have
revived and resurrected this vital strategy.
Armed with the strike weapon and other forms of creative
resistance, the multinational organized and unorganized sectors
of labor need to be ready for stormy days ahead, as wars abroad
and an economic crisis at home eat away at their wages and
conditions.
Reprinted from the Sept. 25, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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