Verizon Strike Begins as Nearly 40,000 Workers Walk Off The Job

BY TOM DAVIS

With no negotiations scheduled, a massive Verizon strike impacting Long Island and elsewhere began Wednesday at 6 a.m.

Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers began a walkout that could adversely impact the company's 140 million customers, marking one of the largest work actions in any U.S. industry in years.

"Extremely on," Rob Master, a CWA spokesman, told Patch Wednesday morning. "About 700 on picket line here on West 36th Street" in New York City.

Representatives of the Communications Workers of America and the Brotherhood of Electrical Engineers said the company refused to meet with the union on Tuesday and early Wednesday.

No meeting is scheduled for the near future, the union says, so the strike is on.

"The company refused to meet with us," Master said. "Our bargaining teams were available all day long to meet, and they had no interest, apparently."

Verizon representatives say that the company is “fully prepared to serve its customers” in the event of a strike.

The strike, however, could lead to delays impacting customers looking to reconnect to cable television or their internet connections, and even longer waits for new subscribers wanting its FiOS and mobile services.

When 45,000 Verizon workers went on strike in 2011, customers complained of going without internet service and cable television for two weeks or longer.

Verizon says that it has hired thousands of non-union, replacement workers to cover striking employees and is prepared for however long is necessary.

In a Monday joint statement, labor leaders with IBEW Local 827 and CWA Local 1000 said that 39,000 East Coast workers plan to “stand up for working families” against “Verizon’s corporate greed."

Master told Patch that there will be "old-school picket lines" at "every Verizon location," and that "a couple" of big events during the day are planned as well, though specifics were not immediately available.

Here are the locations on Long Island where workers will be picketing and rallying, according to standuptoverizon.com:

• Smith Haven Mall, Lake Grove- Noon (Rally)
• 720 Larkfield Road, East Northport- 6 a.m.
• 741 Zeckendorf Boulevard, Garden City- 6 a.m.

Union leaders are alleging that even though Verizon made $39 billion in profits over the last three years, the company wants to “gut job security protections, contract out more work and send jobs overseas, and require technicians to work away from home for as long as two months without seeing their families.”

The corporate giant is also refusing to negotiate any improvements in wages, benefits or working conditions for Verizon Wireless retail workers, who formed a union in 2014, labor leaders allege.

According to labor leaders, contract negotiations began in June 2015; the workers’ contracts expired on August 1 last year.

“For months and months, we’ve made every effort to reach a fair agreement at the bargaining table,” Myles Calvey, another union leader, said in the statement. “We’ve offered Verizon hundreds of millions of dollars in cost savings and yet they still refuse to provide basic job security for workers. We have to take a stand now for our families and every American worker.”

According to union leaders, Verizon Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam earns 200 times more than the average Verizon employee. In addition, the company’s top five executives allegedly made $233 million over the last five years.

A company statement said it has trained thousands of non-union Verizon employees to carry out “virtually every job function handled by our represented workforce,” from making repairs on utility poles to responding to inquiries in its call centers.

“Let’s make it clear – we are ready for a strike,” Bob Mudge, president of Verizon’s wireline network operations, said in the statement. “With any sort of job action or disruption to our business, our primary goal is to ensure our customers can count on the critical communications services that they pay for and we provide. I want them to know that will happen.”

Photo: CWA Local 1101 workers protest outside a Verizon store in New York City on Sunday