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45,000 Verizon Workers On Strike Over New Contract

Posted by timothy on from the your-call-is-very-important-to-us-please-hold dept.

Trouble with your landline? If you have Verizon, especially on the east coast, it might not be the best time to have it fixed; The Daily Mail reports that "Forty-five thousand Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., are on the picket line Sunday as labour contract talks fizzled. More than a fifth of the wireless giant's work force has gone on strike as contract negotiations for the wireline division broke down last night."

14 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. In other news, by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In other, totally unrelated news, Verizon reported a 6.3% earnings jump from last year at this time. Of course, since Verizon has less free spending money and has invested in their hopelessly out of date network to remain competitive with the 3rd world... they decided to cut labor and give themselves raises for being so smart!

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  2. Those disgusting proles! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How dare they let their petty concerns over whether they get a pittance or a laughable pittance from Verizon's bloated coffers interfere with my right to vapid chatter?

    1. Re:Those disgusting proles! by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the article is 'surprisingly' short on details about WHY the workers are on strike.

      you can bet they have a good reason. and the fact that media does not report news anymore when its the little guy who gets stomped by big business..

      I've been on the receiving side of having wages cut, benefits cut and then my job cut. I can look and see the middle class eroding before my own eyes. I can fully believe 'big wireless' is being greedy and forcing workers to settle for less and less over time.

      why isn't this reported?

      you know why. the real truth is not what media co's want coming out. its actually too unsettling to report this level of truth in the world.

      I've been a fan of unions, recently. I see a lot of parallels between the days of woody guthrie and today. big companies are owning your ass and getting you to settle for less and less, all the while getting richer and richer. study history, its a 100% repeat of the early part of the 1900's in the US. listen to the pro-union and pro-labor songs (folk songs) and imagine them being sung today. they fit like a glove.

      we need unions back. and we need most of the workers to admit this and force companies to stop stealing OUR hard earned wealth.

      capitalism - in its current state - is a failure. look all around you. we need something better. what's it going to take before everyone realizes that? how much worse does it have to get?

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    2. Re:Those disgusting proles! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The fact that my original post wasn't trivially identified as sarcasm rather unnerves me...

    3. Re:Those disgusting proles! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      we need unions back. and we need most of the workers to admit this and force companies to stop stealing OUR hard earned wealth.

      *shakes head*

      a) Unions are still here, they never left.

      b) The quality of life in American has never been so good. Poor* people with smart phones? Check. Poor* people with big screen HD TV's? Check. Poor* people owning cars? check. * (Poor as classified by the government's standard and more so by POTUS's claims)

      c) Entitlement mentality has never been so high. Just look at your own statements.

      d) We don't really have capitalism right now. Things are far to regulated and governed for that. It's a wolf in capitalism's clothing.

      e) The US entered a recession and all Keynesian attempts to pull it out of by having the government spend trillions of dollars for make work, dig-a-hole-and-fill-it-back-in jobs have proven to be a failure by the fact that we're STILL facing over 9% unemployment and the US credit rating was downgraded thanks to said "economic policy" of massive debt spending. You can thank your lost job on the fact that our economy is still sluggish and you can thank socialism, not capitalism for that.

      f) Unions are a major cause for over-seas outsourcing. We need unions "back" as much as we need a hole in the head. You can look at the state of Wisconsin and see some major examples in: Kohler Co., Harley Davidson, Mercury Marine, Thomas Industries, and more of how these companies are being driving into the ground by private unions.

      The same state can be looked up on by how public unions have driven the economics of the state into the ground. Over $3 billion dollar deficit has been turned into a surplus because of the limiting of public unions power. As proof positive of Unions anti-jobs agenda, look at Milwaukee public schools. Refusing to save hundreds of teachers jobs by agreeing to pay a little more in benefits. Teachers who are easily making $50-100K+ a year plus good benefits (ie. not even close to poor) continue to claim their poor and refuse to save the jobs but continue to tough "share the wealth" slogans as only hypocrites can do.

       

      No, we don't need unions back. We need government back. Back in the hands of the people. Back in the hands of businessmen, teachers, accountants, creative designers, etc. Not lawyers, lawyers, and lawyers. Not in the hands of multi-millionaires who have no understanding of the real world.

      Maybe then we can get tax reform. A simplified tax code so everyone knows exactly how much tax to and no tax deductions that cause the "this company paid no taxes" headlines.

      Maybe then we can get tort reform for healthcare to start dropping the cost of healthcare and end this sickening and stupid discussion of who should pay for it that does nothing to solve the real problem.

      Maybe then we can get term limits on congress so career politics will be no more. No more motivation for re-election. Decisions can be made on merit, not party policy. A party system that shovels out re-election money to make people vote in their favour, even if it's against the best interest of the country.

      And much much more, but there's too many topics and not enough time.

    4. Re:Those disgusting proles! by Voyager529 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      ...And according to the Democrats, all of our problems are the Republicans' fault.

      Ultimately, the problem is career politicians. No one in D.C. is willing to forego a re-election in order to make unpopular decisions that are ultimately for the good of the country.

    5. Re:Those disgusting proles! by pipelayerification · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As I look around I see tea partiers trying to lower the oppressive tax burden that is stifling business and employment. I see a currency that has been driven into the ground by Liberal Keynsian economic philosophy in action (government stimulus will save the economy, to get money for government stimulus we will take the money from those who make up the economic engine of the country. Then we take 25% of that money for administrative costs of a bloated and corrupt government and send the rest to out favorite causes, political boondoggles, and contributors and call it "shovel ready projects". Presto, we made 25% disappear completely and the rest went to people we really care about like the SEIU. Huh, wierd. The economy is getting worse. Obviously we didn't take enough money out of the economy to give it back to the economy. That must be because of the evil Republicans trying to get us to quit spending the money we confiscated plus the money we borrowed from China. Oh well, blame the rich people. Oh crap, they where the ones who donated to our election campaigns in 2008. That's strange, they get mad when you blame them and start talking about taking their money away. Then they put it in the bank instead of investing in things that create jobs. Must be those evil tea partiers talking them into it. Guess well have to borrow more money from China. Oh wait, that lowers our credit rating. Stupid bond rating agencies fault now. That's weird because they voted for us too. Oh well, back to basics. Must be Bush's fault. Even though the president can't spend a dime without a spending bill that originates in the house which Democrats controlled from 2007 on. That really weird. The economy started tanking right after Dems took control of the nations spending. I give up. This just isn't working like we planned)

    6. Re:Those disgusting proles! by jo_ham · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "oppressive tax burden" - I stopped reading right there.

      Don't let facts get in the way of your tea bagger talking points.

  3. The Coming Big, Bloody Class War by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...will not be between Black and White, or White and Hispanic, or even Rich and Poor. It will be between those who get pensions and employer-provided healthcare and those who don't.

    1. Re:The Coming Big, Bloody Class War by cowboy76Spain · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The poor are getting stomped because it is SOOO EASY to make them believe that their enemies are other poor with just slightly better benefits...

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      Why can't /. have a rich-text editor? Editing your own HTML is so XXth century.
  4. Re:Thank you for calling Verizon by metalmaster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    better than this honest example from T-Mobile customer service.....

    IVR: "Please tell me what youre calling about in your own words"
    ME: "Billing"
    IVR: "I didnt understand your request. Im going to disconnect this call, and you can try again later"

    I also tried "representative", "account" ,"help" and "support." I eventually got to a person who transferred me to the right department. and then the real fun started.....I asked the rep about a service plan and whether or not it was a flat rate or it included other taxes and fees. She told me i would have to ask an in-store rep for the answer.

  5. Re:Thank you for calling Verizon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sometimes works here. As did the old just enter rubbish in the tone menu until it dumped you to a rep. Unfortunately more and more companies are deciding they really don't need the customers who want to talk to someone. It's gotten to the point that even when you want to cancel a contract or have a repair you can't get anyone. I have one friend who just refused to pay his bill until they cancelled his service and then when they called him over his billing he paid the difference and told them to cancel it. The next month they called because they kept the service going after he told them to cancel it but didn't have a credit card on file to charge the non-existant service to. It's become almost criminal how companies act...at least the mob keeps your shop from burning down when they extort you.

  6. Re:Mixed Feelings by royallthefourth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have mixed feelings about this one. I think it is fair to expect Verizon's union workers to contribute money towards their healthcare costs. Just about every other employer makes their employees do so.

    "My job sucks, so it's only fair that other people's jobs should suck too instead of taking the effort to organize with my coworkers and demand that our job suck less."

  7. Re:Hell Yes! by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Insightful

    YOu know Verizon was paying up to $17/hr for their call center where I lived and offered health insurance for its workers and pensions. The job sucks but it is well worth it if you have a famiy.

    I noticed just a few days ago a lot of temp agencies are advertising, BIG TELECOM needs help desk workers, 13/hr, no pensions or benefits, all contract etc.

    Now it seems to make sense. Verizon probably paid the temp agencies to quickly find workers to replace the good ones with cheaper ones so they can simply fire all the non union members or have ready replacements to save money.

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