Verizon workers across the East Coast marched in picket lines on Wednesday in the largest U.S. strike in recent memory to protest the “corporate greed” of the multinational communications behemoth.
Verizon has failed to negotiate a fair contract with its employees despite making billions in monthly profits and multiple concessions on the part of union members. Verizon employees’ contract expired eight months ago and talks over a new contract, which have gone on for ten months, broke off last week.
About 40,000 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBW) unions are joining in the strike.
CWA also detailed the “devastating cuts” Verizon is attempting to force on workers, “even after significant worker concessions on healthcare.” The desired cutbacks include offshoring jobs to countries with low wages, cutting job security, sending technicians on jobs away from home for as long as two months, freezing pensions, slashing benefits, and refusing to negotiate improvements to wages and working conditions.
The unions argue that “Verizon is making these demands despite having 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”.
— source commondreams.org