More than 39,000 workers from Massachusetts to Virginia, who are members of CWA and IBEW, are set to go on strike at Verizon if a fair agreement is not reached by April 13th at 6:00 a.m. Labor and management have been engaged in ten months of intense negotiations. Despite the good-faith effort of workers to come to an agreement, by offering hundreds of millions of dollars in health care concessions, the company has refused to budge and respect the legitimate concerns of workers.
Informational pickets are set to take place around the state, beginning on Wednesday, April 13, 2016. We will follow up with the details for when and where you can join a picket line. Your solidarity is critical to ensure that justice prevails in the face of blind greed.
Verizon’s behavior is a prime example of the widespread corporate greed that is making it harder for millions of workers around this country to earn a respectful living. Rather than treating its workforce as equal partners in the business, management is trying to profit on the backs of workers by shipping jobs overseas and demanding unreasonable concessions.
Verizon’s greed is simply indefensible. CEO Lowell McAdam made $18 million last year – more than 200 times the compensation of the average Verizon employee. Verizon’s top five executives made $233 million over the last five years. Last year, Verizon paid out $13.5 billion to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks. For a company that earned $39 billion in profits over the last three years, saying that it can’t afford a fair contract for workers is a boldfaced lie.
Should a strike be called, we know that we can once again count on your support because an injury to one is an injury to all. We will be sure to update you on any new developments as well as the best ways to show your solidarity for our IBEW and CWA brothers and sisters.