VZ-East Negotiations Focus on Jobs of the Future

Union leaders from IBEW and CWA are stressing the importance of job security in early negotiations with Verizon that are taking place in Washington and New York.

A June 16 update to local union presidents made the case: "Bringing in the best contract in the world won't mean much if the bargaining unit keeps shrinking until we end up with no work.  That's the course Verizon has been on: offering surpluses and backfilling with contractors; defining our work more and more narrowly; using call centers in Canada, the Philippines, Mexico, and India; moving bargaining unit work to lower-wage, lower-benefit workers at Verizon Business and Verizon Wireless; and busting organizing campaigns.

"This is how Verizon has shrunk the percentage of revenue that comes from union operations from 70 percent in 2002 to just 30 percent. This decline in union work has come even as FiOS has expanded."

"As Verizon grows, so should we. The wages and benefits we have fought so hard for will be secure only when future jobs at Verizon are secure," the update concluded.

What about health care?

At the start of a recent bargaining session, CWA Chief Negotiator Dennis Trainor strongly urged Verizon to join with IBEW and CWA, other national unions and businesses to work for the enactment of a national health care program. This would save Verizon billions of dollars and remove the issue from the bargaining table in the future. Quoting CWA President Larry Cohen, Trainor told the Verizon representative to "get off our backs and get on our side" in this matter.

To help strengthen the national drive for reform, thousands of Verizon IBEW and CWA members are getting trained by their union to become forceful advocates for reform. 

Once members have completed the training program, they will be more knowledgeable about health care reform for their contract campaign and will be expected to participate in phone banks, door knocking and other political action activity to help win reforms at the state and national level.

Long Term Evolution (but for whom??)

Verizon is planning to use a technology called Long-Term Evolution (or LTE) for its 4G network. Verizon's Chief Technology Officer Dick Lynch says that the LTE network, "will be the first that truly bridges Verizon's wireline and wireless businesses… The LTE network, however, will bring true broadband speeds, off of which Verizon can hang services it has always reserved for wireline."

Union leaders stress that this future network must be built by bargaining unit employees under the existing collective bargaining agreements. All non-union jobs must be brought into our bargaining units and non-union subsidiaries prohibited in the future.

Bargaining has recessed until June 30, 2008.