Maryland CWAers Protest Verizon Power Grab

About 40 Verizon members from several CWA locals fill the hearing room at the state capitol in Annapolis.

More than 40 CWA and RMC members from seven CWA locals filled the hearing room of the Maryland Senate Finance Committee with a sea of red shirts this week. Their mission: to spotlight a bill that would allow Verizon to sell its landline assets without any review by the Public Service Commission.

CWAers waited for more than four hours for the bill, SB 813, to be discussed, and took advantage of that time to tell others at the capitol just was Verizon was trying to do and the serious effect it would have on consumers, workers and communities.

While Verizon tried to present the measure as "streamlining the process," supportive legislators and witnesses, including Paula Vinciguerra, Local 2106, made clear that Verizon simply wanted to sell the landlines without any oversight by state regulators.

Members from Locals 2100, 2101, 2106, 2107, 2108, 2300, 2336, and retirees from RMC 2108 joined the action at the state capitol.