Verizon told its striking workers yesterday that it will halt their health insurance and all medical, vision and dental benefits if they remain out on strike after August 31. Union leaders accused the company of lining up with right-wing extremists out to eliminate workers' rights.
It really has been a long time since we've seen a company as unapologetically aggressive as Verizon. The stars are all aligned in their favor: The nebish in the Oval Office might defend the workers publicly, but Verizon knows that in the end Obama always gives Wall Street whatever it wants; and the generally poor state of the economy makes lengthy strikes a real hardship for the workers and unions involved. The company holds all the cards, and they are playing them.
It is extremely unlikely that the striking workers will ever lose their health benefits, even if the dispute goes the company's way. Verizon knows it but the fear this threat will instill in the strikers, particularly those with diseased or disabled children who need expensive care, might force a better settlement for them. This is an ugly tactic, but it is a corporation after all, not a philanthropic organization.
http://peoplesworld.org/verizon-threatens-strikers-with-health-care-cutoff/?stage=Live
Here's a good report from Juan Gonzalez
The workers are bringing the strike home to the boss-literally.
Verizon workers plan demonstration at CEO’s home
Striking Verizon workers have said they’re planning a demonstration at the home of Verizon CEO Lowell McAdams on Thursday night.
The New Jersey branch of the Communications Workers America are planning a candlelight vigil outside the executive’s home in Mendham, N.J., to mourn the “death of good, middle class jobs in New Jersey,” according to the union’s Web site.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-tech/post/verizon-workers-plan-demonstration-at-ceos-home/2011/08/18/gIQAcAITNJ_blog.html
The strike is having something of an adverse effect on the company as there was a groundswell of resistance in New York to a deal its school system made with Verizon.
School Panel, Over Protests, Backs a Deal With Verizon
The Panel for Educational Policy on Wednesday approved a $120 million contract with a Verizon subsidiary to provide phone and Internet services for two years at city schools, despite calls for postponing the vote and boisterous protests over Verizon’s possible role in federal theft charges against an Education Department consultant.
Later in the same article.
Complaints came from people inside and outside of the school, before and during the meeting, injecting the current strike by Verizon’s landline workers into the controversy. Mr. Liu, whose office registered the contract in May, said that a yes vote on the contract would essentially validate the company’s demands for cuts to workers’ health and benefit funds.
In a letter sent to the panel’s members on Tuesday, James J. Gerace, president of Verizon’s New York region, accused the Communication Workers of America, which represents many of the striking employees, of fomenting a campaign against the contract by disseminating what he called “patently false” information about Verizon’s role in the theft charges.
This is a serious accusation on Verizon's part, one which is legally actionable if untrue. Something I'm sure the union is considering.
Still later.
On Wednesday, hundreds of people, most of them wearing red, the color of shirts that Verizon workers are wearing on picket lines, packed the school’s auditorium, some holding signs that read, “While Verizon profits, kids and workers lose.”
In April, federal authorities arrested Willard Lanham, a former technology consultant for the Education Department, on charges that he stole $3.6 million over six years. He is accused of using contractors for Verizon, as well as I.B.M., to hide the scheme. A report by Richard J. Condon, the special investigator for the city’s schools, accused Verizon and I.B.M. of facilitating the fraud by keeping silent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/nyregion/verizon-deal-for-school-phones-approved-by-panel-for-educational-policy.html
And, as usual, the "liberal" bourgeois press are doing their disingenuous best to help Verizon swindle its employees, with the New York Crimes and the Washington Host leading the way.
Customers Feel Ripples of the Verizon Strike
As a strike by 45,000 Verizon workers approaches the two-week mark, the company’s customers are beginning to feel the impact — and are complaining about it.
Verizon acknowledges “minor” disruptions since the strike began on Aug. 7. But some customers of its landline telephone, Internet and cable television service are reporting significant delays getting current lines repaired and new ones installed.
I guess Verizon's workers should submit to having their standard of living slashed rather than inconvenience Verizon's customers. And this is assuming that the company or a sympathetic party isn't responsible for the "significant delays."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/technology/verizon-strike-slowing-service-and-customers-complain.html
Verizon customers see outages as worker strike continues
As negotiations over a strike by 45,000 Verizon workers continued to sour, several thousand Washington-area customers experienced service outages caused by what the company called acts of sabotage.
Verizon reported 28 incidents of cut cables and damaged terminals in the District and Maryland since the strike began Sunday, out of more than 100 similiar incidents along the East Coast. Most of the vandalism has taken place in New Jersey and New York, Verizon spokesman Harry Mitchell said Friday.
Whose acts of sabotage?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/verizon-customers-see-outages-as-worker-strike-continues/2011/08/12/gIQAzSJzBJ_story.html
Meanwhile, thing just keep getting better for the cash-rich telecom giant.
Verizon’s got half the country covered with LTE
Verizon is turning on its LTE network in 15 cities and expanding 4G coverage in 10 cities, bringing more than half the U.S. population under its next-generation wireless network on Thursday. Eight months after its initial launch, Verizon’s LTE network now covers 160 million people in 117 cities.
The expansion keeps Verizon well ahead of AT&T, which is preparing to turn on its LTE network and just announced two new LTE devices that will have to settle for HSPA+ until true 4G comes online. AT&T has plans to offer LTE service in five markets this summer, but it has not yet announced a launch date for its new network. Verizon expects to have 185 million consumers covered by the end of this year.
http://gigaom.com/2011/08/18/verizons-got-half-the-country-covered-with-lte/
And here's the EPS chart.
Verizon Sees Revenue and EPS Growth
Verizon Communications Inc. has positioned itself to "kick into a higher gear as we go forward," Lowell McAdam, Verizon president and chief operating officer, told investors and analysts at a conference today. The conference included a discussion of the company's 2010 results and a strategic and financial overview of 2011 and beyond.
McAdam said: "Verizon's superior asset base gives us a solid foothold in growth markets for broadband, wireless data, video and cloud services - businesses that are gaining scale and momentum, as we saw in the second half of 2010. Verizon has an unmatched strategic position in the growth markets of the future. Our focus is on leveraging these superior assets to deliver superior value to customers and investors."
McAdam described a transformational change in Verizon's revenue and growth profile. Over the past several years, he noted, Verizon has invested in next-generation broadband technologies such as FiOS and wireless LTE; it has acquired assets such as Alltel and MCI to extend its reach in global markets and add scale; and it has divested lower-growth, non-strategic assets. As a result, 72 percent of Verizon's total revenues in 2010 were generated by wireless, FiOS and strategic business services, compared with 48 percent in 2006.
Earlier today, the company reported 2010 total operating revenues of $106.6 billion. Excluding results from assets that have since been divested, 2010 revenues were $104.4 billion, or a 1.9 percent increase from 2009 revenues of $102.5 billion on a comparable basis (non-GAAP).
http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2011/verizon-sees-revenue-and-eps.html
The raw hand of power is reaching out from Wall Street and taking whatever it can pry from our hands. They have the Congress, the White House, the judiciary, the think tanks, and the press, we only have each other. Please consider visiting the CWA website and seeing what you can do. Think of how emboldened capital will be if a company earning gaudy profits as Verizon is can force concessions from unions as strong as the IBEW and the CWA. If you work for a living, whether a union member or not, the outcome of this struggle will have an impact on your life. Capital is winning its endless war on labor, this trend must be reversed, for all our sakes.
http://cwa-union.org/pages/support_the_strike_at_verizon
