WASHINGTON – The Communication Workers of America are putting the screws to Verizon Communications in public comments as labor negotiations for some 39,000 employees drag on. CWA and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union members have been working without a contract since Aug. 1.
Having already accused Verizon of turning down massive federal and state subsidies, CWA spokeswoman Kendra Marr Chaikind leveled new allegations in an e-mail to RCR Wireless News.
“Verizon has been crying poor in contract negotiations with CWA and the IBEW,” Chaikind wrote. “The company only makes $1 billion in profits every month and its top executives have raked in a paltry $249 million in the last five years! To get themselves out of such dire straits, Verizon wants to shift costs to the 39,000 wireline workers who have been working without a contract since Aug. 1 – proposing taking away benefits from employees hurt on the job, big increases in health care costs and axing retirement and job security. Management is also refusing to negotiate better wages or benefits for Verizon Wireless workers. CWA wants to do something about that, so we’ve launched GoFundVerizon.com. It’s crowdfunding for the 1%. Anyone can sign up to make a donation and maybe help CEO Lowell McAdam buy a new yacht.”
Aside from offering to buy the Verizon CEO a new yacht, CWA has also asked the Federal Communications Commission and telecom regulatory bodies in six states to investigate Verizon’s alleged neglect of its copper wireline networks.
CWA spokesman Michael Rabinowitz wrote in an e-mail that, “In July, Verizon admitted in a letter to the FCC that it had only spent $200 million over the last seven years to maintain its copper landline network in 11 states and the District of Columbia. The $200 million investment is less than 1% of the amount phone and DSL customers pay Verizon for service, which means the average customer is financing wireless and fiber expansion, rather than the upkeep of the network they rely on. In light of the new evidence presented by CWA to regulators, scores of legislators across the region joined the call for renewed investigation into Verizon’s abandonment of the copper network.”
Verizon spokesman Richard Young said the CWA comments are counterproductive and “outrageous. When will this nonsense stop, and when will the union get serious about reaching an equitable deal that benefits their members?”
“Each bargain cycle has these outrageous allegations, which are complete and utter nonsense,” Young added.
Speaking to the specific allegation of Verizon neglecting its old copper line networks, Young said, “Last year in New York alone we invested more than $1.5 billion on maintaining our legacy systems.”
Young told RCR Wireless News that the CWA would be better served by negotiating in good faith than writing “fictitious press releases that benefit no one.”
