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from the workers-and-customers-still-getting-screwed dept.
39,000 Verizon employees, members of the Communications Workers of America or the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, have been working without a contract since August of 2015. A strike has been called for 6AM April 13. It will be the largest strike since August of 2011 whan, again, it was Verizon management refusing to bargain in good faith.
IBEW Local 827 reports
Verizon made $39 billion in profits over the last three years--and $1.8 billion a month in profits over the first three months of 2016--but the company is still insisting on givebacks that would devastate our jobs.
The company wants to gut job security protections, contract out more of our work, freeze our pensions at 30 years of service, shutter call centers, and offshore the jobs to Mexico and the Philippines. If we don't accept all of these changes, they will require technicians to work away from home for as long as two months at a time, anywhere in the Verizon footprint, without seeing their families. Verizon has also totally refused to negotiate any improvements in wages, benefits, or working conditions for Verizon Wireless retail workers who formed a union in 2014.
The company's greed is disgusting. [CEO] Lowell McAdam made $18 million last year--more than 200 times the compensation of the average Verizon employee. Verizon's top five executives made $233 million over the last five years. Last year alone, Verizon paid out $13.5 billion in dividends and stock buybacks to shareholders. But they claim they can't afford a fair contract.
And it's not just workers who are getting screwed. Verizon has $35 billion to invest in the failing internet company, Yahoo, but refuses to maintain its copper network, let alone build FiOS in underserved communities across the region. And even where it's legally committed to building FiOS out for every customer, Verizon refuses to hire enough workers to get the job done right or on time.
[Continues...]
Common Dreams adds
"More and more, Americans are outraged by what some of the nation's wealthiest corporations have done to working people over the last 30 years, and Verizon is becoming the poster child for everything that people in this country are angry about", said Edward Mooney, vice president of CWA District 2-13. "This very profitable company wants to push people down."
[...] Last month, 20 U.S. senators sent a letter to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam calling on him to "act as a responsible corporate citizen and negotiate a fair contract with the employees who make your company's success possible."
Among those senators was presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who just last week called Verizon's behavior "unacceptable".
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jdavidb on Wednesday April 13 2016, @12:27PM
I find it odd when people are not only OK with Capitalism but they are not offended when other people who are NOT actually PRODUCIMG the organization's goods|services are better-compensated than the producers.
I currently work in a small startup company of about 8 employees. In this environment, it is very clear that the co-owners, one of whom is CEO, are producing immense value. They deserve everything they get. The idea that owners and high level managers aren't producing value is completely subjective.
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings