In a move that threatens the phone service of millions of customers along the East Coast, about 39,000 Verizon landline and cable workers walked off the job Wednesday morning after the company refused to meet their demands.
What they want, according to Marc Reed, Verizon’s chief administrative officer, is a bigger increase in their median salary than Verizon is offering. And they’re willing to hold customers phone service hostage to get it.
According to Politico New York, “The company said that the employees in question have a wage and benefit package that averages $130,000 a year,” and that, “Verizon said it had offered a 6.5 percent wage increase over the term of the contract, ‘access to quality and affordable’ healthcare, and a 401K with a company match.”
That wasn’t enough, it would seem.
The workers, members of two unions — the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — represent installers, customer service employees, repairmen and other service workers in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., for Verizon’s wireline business, which provides fixed-line phone services and FiOS Internet service.
Standing on a picket line in Manhattan with hundreds of union workers, Keith Purce, president of CWA Local 1101 which represents about 3,500 workers in Manhattan and the Bronx, said they were prepared to stay out “as long as it takes.”
He said talks broke off last week and no new talks were scheduled.
The workers’ latest contract expired in August and so far, the unions and management say negotiations have been unsuccessful.
Verizon said Tuesday that it has worked for more than a year to prepare for the possibility of a strike and has trained thousands of non-union workers to fill in for the striking workers. Employees from other departments across the U.S. also will be sent to replace the striking workers, the company said.
Verizon Communications Inc., which has a total workforce of more than 177,000 employees, said in a statement Tuesday that the company was contacted by federal mediators and is willing to sit down and continue negotiation talks, if the unions agree to hold off on their strike. A spokeswoman for CWA said the union did not authorize the mediators to offer to extend the strike date.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Sure some unions have forgotten that they are supposed to help workers rights and promote fairness. However, the concept is good. Even Trump, who I’m voting for, says that our big companies sending jobs overseas are hurting our nation. Communist and totalitarian lands ban unions. My biggest complaint with unions is that they endorse clowns like Hillary who gave us anti-labor pacts like NAFTA.
I remember when the air traffic controllers union thought they could hold the entire US hostage to their demands. Ronald Reagan knew that once you allow for the bully to extract whatever they want because of abuse of their collective power, you will never regain a level playing field. If 130K is not enough money then they are free to go look for a higher paying job. That is why a free and open economy has worked. Once large “mob” mentality extortion becomes accepted it is nothing different than protection money during the mob days. I say, all you young trainable people with college degrees and without who are looking for a good paying job, I know where there may be job openings! These will be the spoils of war and these unions obviously need to be broken.
The way you think is exactly what caused our good jobs to go to Mexico and China, slave labor use to be in the south eastern USA. But the greedy companies still wanted slave days back again which is against the law in The USA since the Civil War between the states. So what did they do? you guessed it they went to China and Mexico. Do you want our country to stop prospering like the big greedy corporations would like for us to do? Are you willing to become a slave wage earner, there are such things as profit sharing that they are keeping to themselves that they promised the workers, but you seem do not seem to care about that. What if you were promised say for instance 30 dollars per hour + 401k matched dollar for dollar, and a goood health insurance policy ? So you took this job under the promised conditions , and you got them for a while then they quit giving them, what would you do ? swallow it with a grain of salt or go on strike , or in your anti union case you would have to go hunt another job. That you might not find. Then what , ??? you become a slave like a Mexican or a Chinaman.
There are plenty of “slave wage earners” in America, many of them working the non-union jobs for companies that pay through the nose for their union workers. Ever hear of perma-temps? Why do perma-temps exist? Because it’s cheaper to pay a temp agency’s fee than the benefits they’d have to pay if they became permanent (i.e. union) employees!
I’ve seen it time and again: a company gets on the ropes–is in danger of closing–and their workers turn around and strike for higher pay! When they KNOW their employer is in trouble! They just convince themselves that the company’s lying about the dire straight it’s in and assume there’s more money to go around. Just like those college kids that think “the rich” will pay for everybody’s education. Show me a national–or even regional–level union that’s campaigned AGAINST a socialist policy!
Oh, and if you took a job under certain promised conditions, and those conditions were not met, you have a breach of contract. Take it to the tort courts. No union card required. Independent contractors deal with that all the time.
I would hardly call $130,000 a year “slave labor!”
Greed that’s all it is I was a union worker for 36 yrs wages always go up an up no asking for a raise and most of the guys were in debt with all their expensive toys and still hollering bout more money cause they can’t handle wat they make. Just pissed me off and the younger the worse.
You are a idiot. If a company promises you something, they will honor it. I have belonged to a union and they just want and want more and more. They are never satisfied.
Charles, are you mad at the union and union dues? or mad at your employer?
Hi Ray I feel your pain, while $30 per hour seems like a lot of money, in this housing market you would be hard pressed to keep a home with all of the expenses. I think when they linked health care to employment, and the cost of health care (especially Obamacare) goes up then all of a sudden your employer can not make ends meet. Pay raises are connected to what the middle class and how healthy our Economy is doing. Also you mentioned a retirement packages. Up To A Point, The more you put in, the more your employer has to put in, and this raises his costs as well. The MAIN problem I see with workplace Retirement and Healthcare is that just dealing with these two added items, costs your employer loads of money because they must maintain ‘departments’ for each.. that otherwise they would not have this expense if they did not have to give you health care And Retirement. My candidate will not have work, connected with health care. thereby solving the problem of what happens to all of the people who have low paying jobs and no health care, what happens to them…Just think of how much $ your company would save if they did not have to deal with all of the Health care issues! How many people are in your companies health care office that your company has to pay for that you EXPECT them to keep track of all this information..Your big company gets a discount on the health care because they takeover ‘healthcare’s funciton of keeping track of how much you owe, what you pay for and what refunds you are due… yet it costs them money to deal with this very large head ache..My Candidate addressed this in his Rochester N.Y. Rally 4-10-2016 @YouTube.com
all I can say is that I have seen workers from Verizon working right in front of my house for a week repairing cables and they are the LAZIEST workers I have ever seen in my life. I was working in my garden most of the day and was able to really see what they were doing. First 2 trucks arrived around 9 am each with 2 workers. During the whole day, out of these 4 repairmen, only ONE of them was working at a time while the other 3 were sitting on the curb. this went on from 9am to 12 noon. at which time they all left in their truck for lunch and did not come back till nearly 2 pm!!!!!!! The same way of working started again: 1 man working while 3 were resting and doing NOTHING. By 3 pm, I crossed the street, and I asked them how I could enter their union and become a cable repairwoman. They were taken aback a little bit and I told them that the way they worked was a joke and a disgrace. By 4:00 pm they were finished their HARD DAY OF WORK. These people are a joke and milk the system because they know they can get away with it. And $ 130.000 per year is not enough. They should be fired at once !!!!!!
We have two problems, one is unions attached to Politics and other is that the Economy not able to financially support raises right now.. for Unions to justify their monthly Dues, they rile up their members that they DESERVE a Raise,when the Economy clearly can not support a raise. Has the middle class received raises in the past 15 years..if the answer is no then they can not get a raise… there is no economic basis to support their raise. An Economic reality check.
I retired from a large utility company ( non-union ) and we quite often interfaced with the union controlled telephone personnel. I can tell you first hand without effort our guys did more work in a day than they did in two weeks and we weren’t overworked, and that they are all a bunch of lazy a-holes that hide under their masters protection. To pay these lowlifes more is simply a crime. Unions in this country are no different than communist. They should all be illegal and let the market control the workforce. Whatever happened to freedom?
NOT ALL OF US WERE… YES there were and are today but not ALL are!!!
I took care of ALL the CABLE MAINTENANCE for two exchanges in southeastern OHIO!!! And I had the BEST CUSTOMER rating of ALL the other employees in BELMONT, MONROE and WASHINGTON counties in OHIO!!!
And I got it because I EARNED IT!!!
The dead beats are ALL from the big cities and NOT from the rural areas!
See, there’s the problem. Unions were formed in the big cities, not the rural areas. In fact, there’s a direct correlation between population density and socialist mentality. The less real estate you can control, the more you expect the government and/or your employer to take care of you.
I have worked for non-Union company’s and I have worked for union company’s. Do unions promote laziness? Yes, in some cases, a lot depends on individual work ethic. Do unions protect your jobs? Absolutely especially in large company’s. So one thing to consider, union jobs set the bar for everybody else, so like them or not, without them wages everywhere would most certainly be reduced.
You are absolutely right , if the Union jobs did not exist in the United States, these anti union states , right to work law states, would not earn near as much as they are getting, but you can’t seem to drill that into their thick skulls. In order to keep their workers and fleeing to union jobs they pay you a little more to give you the incentive to work for them instead of moving on up north where the union jobs are with closed shop. Open Shop unions are not worth a dime. “some in the union and some not for the same company” But in a closed shop union you have exactly 2 weeks to try the job out to see if you like the conditions, if you don’t join the union within those 2 weeks , out the door you go. Alot of these people on hear don’t know what a real Union is.
All i can say like you say , is they better be thankful that there are unions here, if there were no such thing as a Union Job here in the United States, the right to work states would have a standard of living like they do in China and Mexico. for all you dummies out there that are anti Union , analyze this !!!!!
The “thick skulls” are the ones who strike for higher wages when the company’s teetering on bankruptcy. I’ve worked at union-dominated companies and informal companies, and I can tell you, unions have a much more rigid hierarchy than union-free workplaces. Union workers doing THEIR jobs and no one else’s. Need something done and it’s not in the job description of the guy standing there with nothing to do? If he’s non-union, the job gets done. If he’s union, you waste time (any money) looking for the guy whose job description includes what you need done.
I retired after many years from ATT. Proud Union member. They give you a good salary not because they love you but because the Union makes them.
I am absolutely in love with Your logical way of thinking! Wow, what a breath of fresh air. I can remember driving by work men doing no work and always a superviser doing nothing and making more! The Unions have their members bamboozled… If the members quit the unions, they would automatically get an increase in pay by not having to pay their union dues (and expecting someone else to tell them how and what to think) .
Many Unions are run by thugs, who’s only interest are their pockets, what I hate about them, is how they support fools like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. I have no sympathy for Unions, they only represent themselves and not workers. They want to fill those dwindling piggy banks, and will do anything to do keep control. Its not the workers they are concerned about at all, never has been. If it was, I would stand behind them, but I know better.
It may be worse than you think. Towns in my state gone into bankruptcy due to unions donating humongous amounts of money to politicians and cities to gain outrageous retirement packages and wage increases. This nonsense must stop. we need to find a better way to finance our Politicians campaigns to run for office every few years and the real winners are the Media T.V. making obscene amounts of money off of our Politicians and (as far as I know) NOT donating to their campaign. I vote for Unions and Corporations NOT be allowed to donate to our Politicians Campaigns!
THEY TRY TO TELL US WHO TO VOTE FOR. BUT WE VOTE FOR WHO WE WANT. I’M A TEAMSTER AND I’M VOTING FOR TRUMP. DON’T BELEIVE EVERYTHING YOU READ AND HEAR ABOUT UNIONS. UNIONS BUILT THIS COUNTRY.
Maybe so, but your union dues are still going into Hillary’s campaign coffers.
hey little lady you must not have live in the same region I Lived in , some places if you work ,you have no choice but to be in a Union , Check out New Jersey the northern region, and 95% of all the jobs available are closed shop Unions , you have no choice. You make it sound like these people invented the union . Well maybe some of them did . At 1 point in time the only way you could make any overtime was to work over 40 hours. So instead of letting you work on Saturday to make some overtime they would have someone else to come in and work the weekend shift , and knock you out of your overtime possibilities. this was how the Union got started in the beginning , unfair labor practice. Do you believe in unfair labor practice, if youdo , why don’t you pack up and move to Mexico or China.? This is America , but some people on here want it to be like China. Like you !
I don’t know of any company where *overtime* is paid if you work LESS than 40 hours! What planet are you on, anyway? Why would you think someone owes you overtime if you work less than 40 hour weeks???? Sounds like people looking for a handout.
If you ever owned a company or understood how companies operate then you would know that salaries must fall within a certain range (usually 18%-24%) of overall costs. In order to keep these costs within reason, many companies do not allow overtime. Not because they are greedy, but because they are trying to keep their expense account within budget.
Even big companies must work within a budget.
Too many people who work for unions get greedy. They think they deserve more and more pay, yet they work less than the average person. I have dealt with this many times. A union worker will also refuse to do something outside of his job description and will quit right on the spot when the clock strikes closing time. Most non-union workers will work over and beyond what you ask of them, will stay over until a job is done, and does not act like royalty.
And since when is $130,000 “slave wages”? I sure wish we made that much money!
Trump is America’s only hope
I agree with you, unions are too political. They pretend to have power over their Members that They do not Actually have. And do Not check off the box for Political financial donations! You do not have to do that and if you are harasses, or pressured in any way, then report the Union! If a Union says strike when the economy is down and the middle class is not doing well, object to a strike and once again report them. Just because we do not get a raise, does not mean the Economy can support a raise right now. I know in my state, Our Governor has raised taxes on businesses. This means not enough money to give raises to employees.. Unions feel they must justify their union dues so that so they rile up the members to make them feel they are due a raise. So pay attention to who, is actually asking for a raise. a member, a member connected in some unofficial capacity to the union or out right by the Union itself. How is the economy doing… please remember the Auto unions who put some auto makers out of business. The verizon workers do not have the backing of the American people because of their militant behavior. they either need better PR or fewer strikes.
I completely agree with you. I’m living on Social Security. It sure would be nice to have at least half of their income to live on.
Did you enjoy NOT receiving a cost of living increase this year due to our leader funding his cost overruns ‘healthcare’ plan. probably due to Mass Illegal Immigration creating cost over runs for the healthcare system.
Problems with UNION are their “LEADERS” who line up thair Pockers and at the same time Force Companies to Move to other Countries for Productions of Automobiles, Cookies, Planes while increasing the Unemployment in the USA as envisioned by BARACKY the ATUPID and Carried out by SEIU, Sharpton’s band of Anarchists ETC ETC.. It is tge Progressive Socialist Agenda….
Hey that’s not true , there are plenty of right to work law states. so you are wrong there Red Hawk, They go to China and Mexico , so they can get slave wage earners , Big Business cannot get slavery out of their corrupted mines , would you like to be a slave . ?
In my book, “socialism” and “slavery” aren’t very far apart. and I have yet to see an anti-socialist union.
Why is this site showing a Black male while most of the strikers are Whites. This is discrimination. These morons think we do not why they put that Black male there. It was to demonize Blacks as strikers.
Masanja-
i looked at the photograph in The Horn’s article above, and to me, it clearly shows that the majority of the striking workers in that photo are people of color.
It is what it is; is a photograph racist? Or does it tell the truth? Your not LIKING the truth doesn’t change it a freckle.
That’s the thing about the truth; you can hate it, yell at it, throw crap at it, mock it, laugh at it, heap scorn upon it – it doesn’t matter a bit to Truth. The Truth just stands, unaffected.
NAFTA….This was the beginning…..where it ends NO ONE KNOWS! I worked in a garment factory, 500 plus employees…NAFTA GOT US…..Believe me people….WHEN A COMPANY SAYS OVERSEAS….IT MEANS IT! I was there 25 years….and gone in a minute!!!!
So many of these unions send in goons thugs who not only threaten but are often destructive, negative like slashing tires ,smashing windshields make harassing and threatening phone calls( “I know where your kids go to school, do you want to see them again?”). These thugs are paid to do this !
Or worse. Here in Wisconsin we still remember the James River pulp vat. Unions and whistleblowers. Bad mix.
Amen. And as comment on the headline referral to
“Union Thugs” ? That guy probably wouldn’t have the pay grade he has if the unions had not stood up for the workers of years ago. To call them thugs is just wrong. Workers are at the mercy of company greed.
Unions were very good at the beginning, but now are just very big trouble for everyone. It is the leaders, greedy crooks, who want to waste members money on politics they support and not what the individual wants. It is member’s money not the leaders. Unions should not be permitted to shell, out any money as bribes, payoffs, gifts, gratuities or any thing like it especially not political!
Couldn’t say it any better!
This speaks to the Greed of unions. And they wonder why we would like to abolish or restrict their power. Please have some compassion for the people struggling to survive.
If these union goons are making $130K@yr., then Nurses, Firemen, Policemen, are worth $500K@yr. Most of them are hard pressed to balance a check book, speak English, (that’s understandable), OR, work. for 8 hrs of WORK !!!!!
Take that 130k with a grain of salt, it says pay and benefits i.e. Medical, retirement, vacation, sick time I seriously doubt that Verizon service personnel are making 130k in wages as they make it sound.
The reason company’s are leaving this country is because of greedy union members. In most cases they are doing common labor and expect to make as much as Doctors or Lawyers. Because most union workers are performing common labor, company’s can go to foreign countries and hire unskilled labor workers and train them quickly and pay much lower wages. Guess what? There goes your jobs. You just outsourced your job.
If the union scum doesn’t like their pay scale they are free to go somewhere else. Nothing but a bunch of racketeers and thieves. There was a time when Unions served a good cause, but that was decades ago. Now they are no more than internal terrorists and all should be in jail. Can anyone explain the difference between a union non-worker and the mafia? They extort unearned money from unwilling people.
what about the promises Verizon made to it’s retires ???????????? tell the whole story PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.
Put these union terrorist in jail and close the mafia controlled Unions !!! This country can’t afford their to deal with union trash,
HEY JERRY WHAT DECADE ARE YOU LIVING IN? I’M A TEAMSTER AND ALSO A MINISTER., YOUR WATCHING TO MANY MOBSTER MOVIES AND ITS WARPPING YOUR BRAIN.
You must be living in the ’70s. That’s about the last time unions actually had conditions worth striking over, and before evangelical Christians took over the Republicans. In the last few decades, we’ve had unions striking for stupid reasons, unions getting members back on the job after they’ve been caught red-handed committing major crimes, and unions killing whistleblowers. Not to mention unions channeling mandatory dues toward political candidates and causes that individual union members may be opposed to.
BUT with the AWOL DOJ that we have and a Baracky lap dog for AG…..Never Happen
There is plenty of collage kids look for a great job like this , fire all of them and hire them Iam sure they’ll work harder.
The first thing Hitler and Stalin did was to ban trade unions. American unions lost their way. They need to get back to helping workers and promoting job place fairness. Time to end endorsing Hillary and other phonies who have hurt America’s workers. The last 2 cars I bought are UAW built. Good reliable cars.
Collage KIDS are the BIGGEST DEAD BEATS OF THEM ALL BECAUSE THEY THINK THEY ARE OWED IT!
I started going to work with my Daddy at 5 and his boss had a sign on the wall of company’s office that said this…. THIS WORLD OWES YOU A LIVING, BUT Y O U H A V E W O R K TO GET IT !
I learned this lesson at 5 years of age and I NEVER forgot it !!!
But so many [like collage students you mentioned] are just LAZY DEAD BEATS !!!
when everyone else gets a 1% or nothing at all and these greedy people are not happy with 6.5%. I say fire them all, and let people who really want jobs take them. see how much they will get in the unemployment line.
Be careful what you wish for folks, you don’t like your 1% and are angry that union workers make more, if there were no unions as a lot of Republicans would like to see, you would be lucky to receive 1%. Union company’s make non-Union company’s pay a competitive wage.
Do not negotiate with them. Hire and train those who would like to work and earn the good benefits. I agree with Reagans solution.
Verizon should fire all the striking union bastards!
that would take GUTS and a DOJ not OWNED by UNIONS VIA BARACKY the STUPID!
This mess started with the CRAP that the ONLY American President that was NEVER ELECTED to serve as president… GERALD FORD!!!
FORD IS A GREEDY LYING Son Of Belial [SOB] he started the Break-up of the Bell System when he was appointed president because he lost MONEY in Linton Industries in Chicago! There was a storm, a act of GOD, and he lost contact and lost MONEY in a contract negotiation and he then BLAMED the phone company for it when it REALLY was caused by a STORM!
Ford left office leaving the break-up in limbo because he was beaten by Jimmy Carter… BUT when Ronald Reagan was elected one of the FIRST things REAGAN did was start the break up the Bell System back and the rest is History… The Bell System, General Telephone and the smaller telephone companies in the country were ALL broken up and SOLD OFF TO FOREIGN countries as well as the electronic companies [Western Electric and others] that furnished the telephone equipment!
The CWA [Communication Workers of America] vowed to keep what they could by any all methods that they had at their disposal, so this is why the CWA has turned into the mean, evil, hateful union it is today!!!
I lost my health insurance with Blue Cross when I reached 65 because of Reagan’s MEDICARE which SUCKS!!! When I was hired by Ohio Bell I was GUARANTEED health insurance after I retired for the rest of my life but I LOST IT ALL BECAUSE OF RONALD REAGAN’S MEDICARE!!!!!!!!
H Ray Eldridge-
Technically, Ford was just the FIRST appointed president; the second was the Shrub, who was appointed/selected/installed(whichever adjective you prefer) after the whole “hanging chad” bs in Florida by SCOTUS.
An Investigation team from blackboxvoting.org proved massive voting fraud in Florida tied to the electronic voting machines, one of which tallied 10,000 negative votes for Gore – and you would do well to ask how anyone can CAST a “negative vote.” You can’t. Nevertheless, this machine deducted 10k votes from Gore…and AFAIK, no one went to jail over this obvious theft, either.
Feel free to visit ol’ Bev Harris at the aforementioned site, do some reading, get hip, and get active BEFORE another election is stolen by whomever has the “best” hackers.
Since apparently most voting machines are hacked into remotely, it may be a good idea to simply put one of those cellphone blockers(like some movie theaters have) so that no one within a certain radius can hack in. So some waiting on-line will be temporarily inconvenienced. Better that than to have votes stolen, right?
Having worked for a company as both a Union and non-Union employee over a long period of time I have seen both sides of the issue.
There are pro’s and con’s that are applicable to both sides and at times I benefited from both. But to be fair and realistic at the same time I believe that Union’s have now become a hindrance to our country and economy more, than they are a help. Knowing first hand, I am aware of the inner corruption of Unions. I’ve seen it for myself, first hand.
At one time, in the beginning of industrialization in the Unites States we NEEDED Union’s. We now live in a different time period and need to utilize other ways to negotiate perceived disparities. Union’s became corrupt and greedy, and very, very powerful. Much like our Federal Government. In this particular period of time in our country, these people are extremely fortunate to have jobs that pay well with better benefits than the average American,
Greed corrupts, and that is what I’m seeing here. Personally, I’d like to see some gratefulness for what they already have and thankfulness for the land they live in that has provided them the opportunity to live at the level they do.
Mz Johnson you ARE 101% on target!
Lindon B. Johnson was the biggest MISTAKE America ever made and I still feel in my heart that he was behind the MURDER of John F. Kennedy! Johnson started the major down fall of America! WHY? Because there was an executive order on President Kennedy’s desk to keep the BIBLE in our schools, but after he was MURDERED that immoral filth Johnson made it disappear and America fell into debauchery!
Lot of details left out of this article. like 6.5% over life on contract. How long is the contract … 10 years?? Didn’t hear anyone complaining that the executives at Verizon got 28% raises. Guess it is hard to live on $100,000,000 per year. Since we the peoples voice has been muted our pay doubles every 35 to 70 years, cost of stuff we buy every 10, executive salaries every five or less.
There are lots of folks looking for employment. Hire those people, making sure that hey sway no allegiance with the union. Get these people trained and replace the union employees with these new non-union employees. Greed is destroying this nation.
Ok, so you fire the union folks and hire other people to do those jobs, do you think those new people will be paid the same as the union people? No… So now the new folks that were so eager to take those nice high paying jobs are paid a lot less. So now they get upset for making less and start a union drive, go figure.
People and unions like this is the number one reason our major manufacturers have moved over seas. With our economy as bad as it is this is not the time to be asking for raises. These people should thank God they have a job.
Well, union wages probably didn’t help the mass migration of jobs to China, ultimately I think it has to do with corporate greed. Americans could not survive on China wages.
Instead of calling them thugs, how about considering that verizon is a billion dollar profitable company, who is so greedy, that they won’t properly take care of the people who enable them to make this kind of money! Verizon are the ones who should be ashamed of themselves for being so greedy, and trying to outsource jobs to other countries in order to moreso maximize their profit margin. People have to realize that unions are not the enemy, but that there is strength in numbers, and that is good for all people in both the public and private sectors. Also those in the private sector should realize that those in unions are also very instrumental in setting the wage bar for private sector people too. So when you want to demonize unions, keep in mind that you are cutting your own throats in the private sector also. This title for the article is also biased, and was probably written by libtards with the common sense of door knobs. This is the kind of greed that TRUMP is referring to about companies who want to give all of our jobs away, so they can greedily maximize their own profit , at the expense of many. All the people who are having difficulty finding meaningful employment, simply cannot agree with this method of doing business while they suffer with no job! Wake up people, we have to unite for common causes, and there is strength in numbers, which all people can benefit from!!!!! Go TRUMP 2016!!!!!!!
Landline customers may be in a pinch but cell customers normally have a choice of carriers. If a strike causes many problems there may be fewer customers once the strike is over. That means less revenue for the company and less need for employees. I wouldn’t mind having a pay raise. I would be happy with their median income since that is much higher than what I’m making.
ALSO, POINTING OUT THE 1 OR 2 PEOPLE WHO MAKE 130,000, WHICH IS PROBABLY MANAGEMENT,,,,, does not represent the majority of workers at verizon. There are a lot of average workers who will be negatively affected by this GREED!!!!!!!
There are many average employees who will be negatively affected by this GREED!! Only pointing out the very few who make 130,000, who are probably management, shows the true bias of this article! Wake up people!!!!!!!
THUGS = The Helpful Union Guys
I too have worked both sides of the coin. Can say without a doubt I am happier working a non-union job.I payed dues to a worthless union who only had their interest in mind.Fuk unions their time has passed.
Typical tactics of the Union Thugs and their workers. Don’t work, lay on your azzes all day and do not provide th e
service that you are being paid for, always demand more even if it make
the company unprofitable and ight cause it to shut down. (That wil not happen with Verison)
My union is in bed with the Dems! Why? Jobs being outsourced to Mexico , steel dumping, on and on. NAFTA, and now ,TPP around the corner. WTF is going on…..For F sake vote TR**P!!! United Steel Workers Union in bed with Hillary, sad, just sad…
Sometimes to fight/negotiate with American Corporations one needs to be tough. I just ask Union Members to not injure innocent bystanders. (I’ve been a member of the Construction Labor Union. They helped us win good pay/benefits.)
PEOPLE, don’t be hoodwinked by these corporate boohoos. Be intelligent enough to figure out what they mean by $130,000 a year average. If they work 50 weeks a year, 8 hours a day, that equals 2000 hours a year divided by $130,000 equals $65.00 an hour AVERAGE, (including benefits). Even if it’s true, it’s a small pittance compared to the $6,000,000.00 to $18,000,000.00 a year corporate makes, and they don’t have to perform life-threatening work in all kinds of weather. Corporate makes between $3,000.00 to $9,000.00 an hour plus their benefits. Think about it!
If you want corporate pay, get a corporate job. You don’t get a corporate job by standing on a picket line bitching. Get to college and get an education first.
The landline business is dieing.All these union workers will be out of a job in the future. Version is screwed either way.
I just read a Drudge Rpt. story about an automatic burger machine. There go most McDonald’s jobs, too.
Fire them all and hire people that really want to work. They get more than fair pay. It’s a free country so find another job If you don’t think you are being treated fairly. Most people work for far less money.
i think that an intelligent way to negotiate would involve smart attorneys who figure out exactly how much the company makes from all sources, then divides that amount by the number of employees to see what an average salary SHOULD be…as i understand happened in the NFL, which is why players command such large salaries these days.
But listen to this:
“Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power and chattel slavery destroyed. This, I and my European friends are glad of, for slavery is but the owning of labor and carries with it the care of the laborers, while the European plan, led by England, is that capital shall control labor by controlling wages. This can be done by controlling the money. The great debt that capitalists will see to it is made out of the war, must be used as a means to control the volume of money. To accomplish this, the bonds [government debt to the bankers] must be used as a banking basis. . . . It will not do to allow the greenback, as it is called, to circulate as money any length of time, as we cannot control that.”
-Hazard Circular 1862
Source: Quoted in Charles Lindburgh, Banking and Currency and the Money Trust (Washington D.C.: National Capital Press, 1913), page 102
(relevant portions highlighted)
The bottom line is that it’s really all about control. The super-rich don’t want to share fairly, and never have(check the date of the info in the quote). One way to fix this is, IMO, to make part of the negotiations a plan which would limit the compensation of top executives to a MUCH smaller percentage of the difference between the lowest-paid employee and the highest-paid ones…naturally including ALL compensation: salary, medical/dental, retirement fund, use of corporate jets/yachts/vacation palaces, mansions, “retreats,” and everything else i haven’t thought of, etc.
i know that personally, after giving up an avg. of 65/mo. for Verizon home phone service for more than 15 years, i went to MagicJack, and have reduced my bill to less than 6/month. Screw Verizon. Bunch of damned thieves, as far as i’m concerned.
Approximately $40 per hour with a 401k match pluse all the benifits that is a real fair deal if they saved a large portion of that and got the match they would be retired in no time but they spend it on stupid stuff and then think that they are owed more because the company makes a profit which it needs to stay competitive in a high tech business. People can be so selfish and stupid with money.
Fire them all and then hire hard working people who are looking for work. Then you can use a twist and use illegals to train them+++++just sayin
Works for “Disney”
I was in two unions back in the 70’s & 80’s. I was laid off both for no reason other than being the lowman and the big chiefs had to have their bigger slice so they cut off the low pay to make room. Big chief negotiator just said, “oh well, we tried”. Never worked a union job again. My dues got me Nothing! The unions are killing the job market and then what will they do. STRIKE THIS !