CWA Files ULP Charges as Verizon Fails to Bargain in Good Faith

With the strike at Verizon now in its 13th day, 45,000 members of CWA and IBEW remain determined to stay out as long as it takes to get the company to bargain in good faith with their union bargaining teams.

CWA filed unfair labor practice charges against the company last week, asking the National Labor Relations Board to immediately order Verizon to drop its refusal to bargain and negotiate in good faith as the law requires. The company has refused to budge from the same list of unreasonable concessionary proposals it put on the table when contract talks opened in June.

CWA President Larry Cohen joins members of CWA Local 13000 on a picket line in Philadelphia. Photo credit: Tim Shaffer/Reuters

The charges, filed with NLRB offices in New York and Baltimore, cover the bargaining for 35,000 workers at Verizon and VCSI, and about 70 at Verizon Wireless.

The company's behavior has led the governor of Maryland and 19 members of Congress from New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia to question Verizon's bargaining tactics and urge them to initiate good faith bargaining. Click here to read the letters.

CWA President Larry Cohen condemned Verizon's continued refusal to back off demands that would take huge cuts out the pockets of workers and their families when the company had plenty of money to reward top executives and shareholders. "This is totally unacceptable coming from a company that it had plenty of money to pay $10 billion to shareholders this year, and $258 million to its top five executives over the last four years."

CWA has made it clear that union members are prepared to return to work when Verizon begins to bargain seriously, yet the company has continued to stonewall, even to the point of resorting to scare tactics in an effort to frighten workers. This week, Verizon notified workers that on Aug. 31 it would cut off health benefits for union members who continue to strike, a move Verizon has not threatened to do in past strikes at this point during the bargaining.

Federal law requires employers to give striking employees the opportunity to continue to get health coverage under COBRA, and CWA has committed to assist workers in paying for their health benefits out of the union's Robert Lilja Members Relief Fund (RLMRF). Click here for more information.

Keep up with the latest at www.cwa-union.org/verizon. Sign the petition, join a picket line and stand with the Verizon workers as they stand up for middle-class families.