Solidarity actions with Verizon strikers to continue in Twin Cities

May 10, 2016 by
Workers picketed in solidarity with 39,000 striking Verizon workers outside the company's Roseville store last week. (Labor Review photo)

Workers picketed in solidarity with 39,000 striking Verizon workers outside the company’s Roseville store last week. (Labor Review photo)

Union members in the Twin Cities plan to keep the heat on Verizon this week with two more actions in support of the company’s 39,000 striking workers in the Northeast U.S.

Solidarity actions are planned from noon to 2 p.m. May 11 outside Verizon’s store at 474 Hamline Ave. N. in St. Paul, and from noon to 1 p.m. May 12 outside the company’s downtown Minneapolis location, at 800 Nicollet Ave (RSVP on Facebook).

Last Thursday, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison joined more than 50 protesters outside Verizon’s Roseville location, calling on Verizon to get back to the bargaining table and stop trying to outsource union members’ jobs. “It’s got to be us in Minnesota standing with people struggling for decent pay and decent treatment,” Ellison said.

Striking workers are members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The work stoppage began April 13, and it continues despite Verizon’s move to cut off striking workers from their health insurance benefits effective May 1.

Verizon workers’ previous contract, settled after a 2-week strike in 2011, expired last August. In negotiations since then, workers say, the company has refused to drop its demand for language allowing Verizon to contract out their jobs – the same demand that led to the strike four years ago.

Why is a highly profitable company looking to cut costs with cheap labor? The answer is simple: greed.

According to Verizon’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company’s top four executives raked in $41 million in 2015 alone, and they’ve taken home $114 million in the last three years.

“Verizon wants to boost their bottom line by taking away the stability and reliability their employees once had,” Mona Meyer, president of the CWA Minnesota State Council, said. “This strike is bigger than Verizon. It’s about protecting good, hometown jobs in this country. It’s about securing a brighter future for our families and our communities. It’s about standing up and fighting back!”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Minnesotans plan show of solidarity with striking Verizon workers

May 4, 2016 by

GRAPHICverizon-3-510x510Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers in the Northeast have been on strike for more than three weeks now. Their supporters in Minnesota will stand in solidarity tomorrow, a national day of action, outside the telecommunications giant’s Roseville location.

The rush-hour action, from 4 to 6 p.m. at 2325 Fairview Ave. N, will call out Verizon for attempting to outsource good union jobs, despite turning a $45 billion profit over the past five years.

Striking workers are members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The work stoppage began April 13.

Verizon workers’ previous contract, settled after a 2-week strike in 2011, expired last August. In negotiations since then, workers say, the company has refused to drop its demand for language allowing Verizon to contract out their jobs – the same demand that led to the strike four years ago.

Why is a highly profitable company looking to cut costs with cheap labor? The answer is simple: greed.

According to Verizon’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company’s top four executives raked in $41 million in 2015 alone, and they’ve taken home $114 million in the last three years.

“Verizon wants to boost their bottom line by taking away the stability and reliability their employees once had,” Mona Meyer, president of the CWA Minnesota State Council, said. “This strike is bigger than Verizon. It’s about protecting good, hometown jobs in this country. It’s about securing a brighter future for our families and our communities. It’s about standing up and fighting back!”

Click here to RSVP for the event on Facebook.

Filed Under: Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Workers to keep pressure on Verizon with May 3 picket in Roseville

May 2, 2012 by

Workers outside the Verizon Store in Roseville during the “National Day of Action” March 22.

Apparently, Verizon didn’t get the message the first time.

On March 22, union members protested outside Verizon Stores across the country in a “Verizon National Day of Action.” Tomorrow workers nationwide will stage more informational pickets, timed to coincide with the company’s annual shareholder meeting Alabama.

In the Twin Cities, the informational picket will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. outside the Verizon Wireless Store in Roseville, located at 2325 Fairview Ave. N. (This is not the store inside the Rosedale Mall.)

It’s the same Verizon location where workers picketed March 22. Workers inside the Roseville store are not union members, and demonstrators will not attempt to prevent customers from entering the store.

Rather, the point of the informational picket is customer education and solidarity with Verizon’s 45,000 union workers on the East Coast, who are members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

These union members have been working without a contract since the previous agreement with the company expired in August 2011.

Although Verizon claims it needs concessions from its workers totaling $20,000 per member annually, the truth is the company is turning record profits.

The company is so profitable, in fact, that CEO Lowell McAdam recently tripled his annual compensation, from $7.2 million to $23.1 million. And while the company claims it needs to strip its union workers of their pensions and health benefits, Verizon’s top executives have taken home $258 million over the last four years.

For more information on the Verizon campaign, go to www.cwa-union.org/verizon.

Filed Under: Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,