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About 40,000 Unionized Verizon Workers Walk Off the Job (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: In one of the largest U.S. strikes in recent years, nearly 40,000 Verizon workers walked off the job on Wednesday after contract talks hit an impasse. The event got a boost as U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders joined them at a Brooklyn rally ahead of the New York primary next week. The strike was called by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers that jointly represent employees with such jobs as customer services representatives and network technicians in Verizon Communications Inc's traditional wireline phone operations. The strike could affect service in Verizon's Fios Internet, telephone and TV services businesses across several U.S. East Coast states, including New York, Massachusetts and Virginia. Verizon and the unions have been talking since last June over the company's plans to cut healthcare and pension-related benefits over a three-year period. The workers have been without a contract since its agreement expired in August. Issues include healthcare, offshoring call center jobs, temporary job relocations and pensions.
Couldn't affect customer service in any way, it's impossible to do worse.
Go, Bernie, go!
Industrial relations are going to start getting ugly in the Western World. The mass adoption of neo-liberalism means that it is every man for himself now, and it will be all too easy to persuade workers to hold companies to ransom. No love, absolutely none, will be lost between labour and management. And while the latter would only love to move abroad via outscourcing, the phenomenon of Trump and Sanders has shown the public that ultimately, they have the power to veto companies ability to "free-trade" as well. And why not? After all, workers and voters are simply compelled to act in their own rational-self interest.
And so, like capitalism, neo-liberalism ultimately builds the tools of its own destruction.
it's good news in a way. find out who is non-essential with Verizon.
It's a power struggle between union and management, and although I think a fair deal can be reached, the management clearly needs to be sent a signal.
We simply don't care any more about increasing share holder value at the expense of jobs.
3x as fast, 1/2 the price, knocked the data plan down to 2GB. $56.00 a month . Glad I did just in time, looks like even their own employees are feeling ripped off.
Not a fuck was given.
It's sad that the tax is only 40%.
Exactly. Too many people unfairly had better coverage.
Obama hates unions so he's now punishing them for offering good health insurance.
And even better is that this 40% tax isn't deductible so corporations will have to pay income tax on the Cadillac tax.
Double taxation of corporations is the only way were succeeding at getting corporations to pay their fair share.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/...
There was a two and a half year cliff. We are just on our way into that now. Yes, this does mean a reduction in so-called "Cadillac Plans", orwise known as "Good health insurance.
In addition, in states like New York and California, which set up exchanges, have their own sunset coming on the federal subsidy; this was the big argument between Red States, like Alabama, who refused to set up exchanges of their own, and the federal government last year when those sunsets started to kick in, and the question was whether the sunset provisions applied in those states, or whether the fed, if it wanted people to have the subsidy, would have to continue paying all of it themselves, rather than the states having to pick up the bill.
Ironically, it was tied to creating a state exchange, so there are good legal arguments why the fed would have to carry the load they willingly shouldered when they picked up for the lack of state exchanges.
The jury is still out on who is going to foot the extra Medicaid costs, but the bill is definitely coming due for the unions, and they are seriously unhappy.
I expect that if this keeps up for any significant period of time, since it's on the order of 22% of Verizon employees, if we are to believe the 40,000 employee numbers, that we will be seeing Verizon call centers opening up in the Philippines to take advantage of the recently fast-tracked TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) agreement.
"May you live in interesting times..." applies, I think.
I can certainly understand that businesses, in lean times, need to take steps to keep afloat to avoid bankruptcy, but when you're close to earning $12B in profit a year, cutting pension and healthcare benefits is just mean-spirited. Verizon is destroying the middle class that it is hoping will buy its FIOS and wireless services, and that's both bad for business and bad for the country, and I don't want to support those sorts of actions.
Verizon wireless did a similarly mean-spirited thing last year and moved thousands of customer support jobs from "expensive" SoCal to "cheap" Kentucky, putting a few of my pals out of a job, actually. Despite good wireless service, I cancelled my Verizon Wireless accounts immediately, and when Retention called to ask why, I told them exactly why, asked the caller where they worked, and advised them to start looking for a new job because their position was surely going to move to a cheaper area of the country too.
Isn't $12B in profits ENOUGH? Vote with your wallets folks, and be sure to tell Verizon why you're leaving.
I'm always glad to see union workers standing up for what they want, and I've never worked in a position where I've even had the opportunity to join a union. It's a nice contrast to the ultra-Libertarian crowd in IT who doesn't realize they're being taken advantage of.
If IT and software development were unionized, or better, entry was controlled by a professional organization, people would have a better quality of life. The H-1B visa abuse wouldn't exist and employers who routinely understaff positions and demand 70-hour work weeks to make up for it would be curbed. If we had a professional organization instead of a union, we could actually train new entrants instead of relying on overpaid consultants and/or dealing with incompetence. Instead, we have the lone ranger mentality, and people are convinced that nothing bad will ever be done by their employer.
From what I've read, the union is entirely justified in this case - Verizon is trying to slowly take away things like employer-paid health care and hoping people don't notice by giving them a salary increase. These things are basics, and should be part of everyone's benefits package. It's executive and shareholder greed, pure and simple. Verizon makes massive amounts of profit and their workers should get their fair share, period.
For those jobs that can't be "offshored", there is H1B (Offshore workers at onshore locations).
They have it all covered.
Now go find another job.
The strikers were picketing in front of the Verizon store at the corner of Wall Street and Water Street in the New York City today and making a lot of noise with compressed air horns.
ALLLLLLL
FREAKIN'
DAYYYYYY.
BRAH BRAH BRAH BRAH BRAH BRAH .......
Do they think they will gather support that way?
One of the most important tenets of Libertarianism is your individual right to sell your labor. Voluntarily choosing to sell your labor via a labor union isn't incompatible with Libertarianism.
I have two issues with some unions:
1. An individual should never be forced to join a union. An individual should join a union if it makes sense for the individual. Too often unions enrich themselves while providing little else to the rank and file.
2. There should be no unions in Government work. No functions of our Government should be at the mercy of a union.
Beyond that, I support voluntary membership in private sector unions.
It's a nice contrast to the ultra-Libertarian crowd in IT who doesn't realize they're being taken advantage of.
To the contrary; the ultra-Libertarians are hyper-aware of how much they are being taken advantage of. They either:
A) Do not care because of other reasons they work there that are beneficial to them.
B) Take action to correct the disparity.
C) Leave quickly for other shores, which is super easy to do these days.
I'm not sure how much you think technical workers can really be taken advantage of in todays job market...
On the flip side, I always feel sorry for the unionized people because they are drug into things like strikes they may have wanted nothing to do with, and on top of that take a pay hit for the pleasure to keep union bosses in yachts for doing nothing. Personally, if anyone is going to have a yacht I'd rather it be me; not sure why you support outright theft from workers but each to his own I suppose.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
What that bar (which is pretty darn close between T-Mobile and Verizon) does not show is the difference in speed form region to region... there are absolutely areas around the country where T-Mobile is much much faster than Verizon. At my home I couldn't get calls in the basement of my home with Verizon, but I can with T-Mobile...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Wireless is not involved. The people who are striking are the ones who physically connect stuff with wires, which is the opposite of wireless.
Verizon's wired business is shrinking because of people going wireless. The people who connect wires are suffering because people are going wireless.
Is there still a number of wires left to be connected? Sure, because wireless isn't completely wireless. But it's a lot less demand for the skills of connecting wires compared to pre-wireless days.
You mentioned Verizon Wireless as if it were a separate company. And it is a separate issue, since these are customer support jobs that could be done from the moon for all it matters.
If you take the losses or slowdowns on wired business, and consider that wireless offsets those declines, then wireless is a money printing business for Verizon. I think your message is better off focusing on these sorts of points, not global all-business-lines profit. And you'll make a far stronger argument. I'm actually a little bit on the other side of the argument now. Like 98% with you instead of 99%.
Commenting and fingerpointing to the actual profit is simply pointless.
Mr, Wernst, $12B is a lot of money, but this number is only relevant to the shareholders. Without making further analysis, I am making a guess that US based pension plans are among the largest shareholders. Basically it is the retired teachers, policemen, firemen, municipal workers... the average US retired person.
If you cut the profit in half for Verzion, you are immediately making a massive change to the pension plans, to the accounting and to future pension expenses, because pension expenses are already defined, however the Verizon stock price would plunge. I am betting that reduction of profit by 50% would collapse the stock price by 75%. Verizon would try to raise the prices, at the same time increasing CPI and adding an inflationary ripple to the economy
So, eventually, reduced profit will return as a boomerang one way or another.
Further, an interesting detail: VZ is citing healthcare costs. It is Obamacare, to be precise. Once you give "free insurance", somebody has to pay, and in this situation it will be primarily the Union workers getting the taste of the medicine.
I'm always glad to see union workers standing up for what they want, and I've never worked in a position where I've even had the opportunity to join a union. It's a nice contrast to the ultra-Libertarian crowd in IT who doesn't realize they're being taken advantage of.
Another option would be a guild, like the SAG.
Compensation can still be negotiated (e.g., Brad Pitt vs the person who plays Bus Driver #2), but at least things list working conditions are standardized across contracts. There's also things like pensions and vacation days that can be fought for in a collective manner.
I can understand why unions are not always liked (laziness can set it, internal politics, seniority vs competence), but some kind of collectivism is needed in many more workplaces.
SoCal is running out of water, running out of space, and has too many people clogging the roads.
Kentucky could use a few people. In general, the USA would benefit from moving people to the great underused middle of the country.
Your pals should move. You too!
I hope they all get fired, and non-union workers take over.Unions are the modern age mafia, the warehouse I work at kicked the union out this past Fall.
So what do they get paid hourly? $20-40 an hour? Then add on paid health care AND pension??? Yea, the are WAY over paid in this economy. Their union got too greedy, and that is the reason jobs go off shore. Add in the fact that Obama has made health care much more expensive and giving businesses very little reason to keep offering it.
Unions do not care about the people they represent, all they care about is the money they get from them.
Couldn't affect customer service in any way, it's impossible to do worse.
FIOS around NYC provided one of the most reliable residential internet services I ever used, and I've only seen them send good technicians and linemen. I've seen cable service that just kicks out randomly for half an hour like crappy DSL, but the FIOS worked when semis knocked it down and ran over it.
Not since H1B visas aren't going to have the certs required to work with the stuff by law.
Dear Sir:
Our company, Bombay Telephone Polishers, LLC stands ready to provide most excellent service with all needful certifications at very low prices.
In other words, don't be silly. If there's one thing outsourcing companies excel in it's cram-and-barf certs, and even when they don't actually have those certs, they'll claim they do just to score the contract with the corporate bargain-hunters. Then, if there is an actual requirement, they'll ram as many junior persons through cram-and-barf as necessary.
Slashdot pretty much hates unions so we should cheer the company.
But slashdot pretty much hates Verizon and loves to see them get hurt so we should cheer the union...
This is worse than that time there was a supreme court case where the plaintif and the defendent were BOTH corporations and the judges couldn't figure out who should win because whoever won a corporation lost !
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
I'm technically attached to a Verizon business unit that's in the Wireline category. Building I work in has (now former) Verizon Telecom people who are union. They've cut the group I'm under multiple times over the last 2 years... contractor purge, multiple layoffs (quarterly in some cases), re-orgs that shrink the pool of engineers I work with.... Ultimately VZ has shown (at least to myself and my soon-to-be-former coworkers) that they have 0 care for the people who do the work, they want each quarter maximized for profits and who cares if it impacts things down line. They are a high example of the old Ma Bell greed factor alive and well. Charge as much as the customer will pay, cut all the corners possible, shave as much as you can off the product and line pockets all over the place to keep getting away with it.
Oh, and a major reason this strike could really "go bad" for them.... New Jersey is in the negotiation pool.... can't have upset, striking personnel that close to corp home, can you?
How would one ionize a Verizon Employee in the first place?
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
How many times have we been displaced because IT work was getting sent overseas. The CEOs/CIOs just don't get it. Maybe we should all just walk off the job one day to "Stick it to the man"
If Verizon is going to follow AT&T's lead, they will be selling off their wireline side of the business soon enough.
It makes no sense to keep it. Folks are disconnecting landlines at an ever increasing pace. The costs to maintain the infrastructure to provide land line services are quickly outpacing the income said infrastructure generates.
You watch, within a few years, the major telecoms will have rid themselves of the landline business completely.
Unless cellular 5G can replace wired internet and be effectively "unlimited", there is still a place for a wired infrastructure.
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
Yeah, all this infrastructure was for 1 wire (for phone), now that were moving back to 1 wire (for internet), it's not really any different.
Cheap storage VM.
And no company needs the executive board. They can work entirely effectively without any of that.
But without workers or without customers for what your workers make, your company doesn't exist.
Yet we pay the least essential staff the highest wages. Why?
>Wireless is not involved. The people who are striking are the ones who physically connect stuff with wires, which is the opposite of wireless.
Yeah it's called "wireful."
Can you hear me now?
Verizon sold all of its fiber (& customers) to Frontier. Two other states as well.
Hire replacements...let those 40k become unemployed and ask Bernie for a handout.
verizon payed 15 billion in taxes last year at 35%.... you still want more of verizons money?????
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
According to http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/vz/financials Verizon's sales revenue in 2015 was $132B (I'm rounding to the nearest billion, no need to worry about a few hundreds of millions here and there).
After they deducted a slew of stuff that their accountants decided would slip through IRS audits they ended up with a gross income of $63B.
Then they deducted "expenses", leaving $18B in net income.
Part of those "expenses" were:
The above looks like a total of just under $10B paid on paid on a $63B gross income, with a reported net income of $18B. That's approximately a 15 percent tax rate. Not 35 percent. Still better than Apple though, I'll grant you that.
They are doing this gradually. When a customer get FiOS installed Verizon clips their copper POTS line.
A friend who had FiOS installed in his home in NJ said that they absolutely refused to leave the POTS line intact in case he wanted to go back to it at a later date. I have read that they don't like that the law requires them to let other companies use their copper cables and there is currently no such requirement for fibre.