Frederick Douglass

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them..." Frederick Douglass

Friday, August 26, 2011

Verizon strike highlights need for new workers’ movement

It is instructive to examine the injunctions, and to see just how carefully calculated the attempt to force strikers into submission actually is. For instance, New York pickets are limited based on the number of scab workers on each site. A workplace with twenty-five strikebreakers can have only six pickets at any one time. Fifty strikebreakers can be met by ten pickets, et cetera. In Pennsylvania, all pickets are limited to six strikers, who must be fifteen feet from the door. More than this, “videotaping, photographing, or recording in any manner, the likeness of any individual at any worksite of any Verizon employee or contractor performing company work” is illegal. Neither the CWA nor the IBEW have raised a finger to dispute this injunctions, and have instructed strikers to follow them to the letter.

Last Friday, the FBI announced that it is investigating a “national security” issue, relating to possible “sabotage” by Verizon workers. Special Agent Bryan Travers declared that: “Because critical infrastructure has been affected, namely the telecommunications of both a hospital and a police department, the FBI is looking into this matter from a security standpoint as part of our security efforts leading up to the 9/11 anniversary.”



http://thetrialbyfire.org/2011/08/25/verizon-strike-highlights-need-for-new-workers-movement/#respond