Thousands of CWA Activists Stand Up to Verizon in Philly

CWA members and supporters rally outside Verizon’s Philadelphia headquarters.

Nearly 5,000 workers engulfed Verizon’s offices in downtown Philadelphia on Saturday morning, demanding that the company stop its assault on workers and bargain a fair contract.

The streets were filled with a sea of red shirts and chants. CWA International President Larry Cohen, District 2-13 Vice President Ed Moony and District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton fired up the crowd and invoked the 37 IBEW and CWA members who were fired after Verizon workers went on strike last August.

CWA President Larry Cohen, standing with fired workers, addresses a crowd of 5,000 workers.

“Every day, especially this next week, think about your own life as if you’re walking in their shoes,” Cohen said. “Every one of these fired workers – they’re not giving up. They’re standing up, they’re fighting back. Can we do any less?”

One worker, Jennifer Travis, who worked at a call center in Pittsburgh, was fired after 15 exemplary years on the job. She told her story to 35,000 brothers and sisters gathered at the nearby Workers Stand for America rally. (Watch the highlights: Workers Stand for America.)

“The company says that I assaulted a manager as he escorted a scab across our picket line. Those are outrageous and false allegations. And, together with my union, we are fighting back,” she said. “But mine was not an isolated incident. Several of my brothers and sisters were fired or disciplined last August for similarly trumped up charges. What many of us have in common is our highly visible status as union leaders and activists. It makes me wonder if the company retaliated against us in an effort to intimidate other members who would consider standing up for their union in the future. If that's true, it's flat out bullying, and it's disgusting.”

After a great rally, CWAers are on the march to the Workers Stand for America event.

CWAers marched two miles through Philadelphia to join Travis at the rally, where sprinkler fitters, postal workers, teachers, and other union workers gathered at Eakins Oval in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Cohen told workers, “We’re not walking silently!” And block after block, stopping traffic in all directions, they shouted, “What’s disgusting? Union busting!” and “What do we do when we’re under attack? We stand up, we fight back!”

There, workers demanded that politicians on both sides of the aisle sign on to a new Second Bill of Rights, a list of priorities that workers want featured at the Democratic and Republican national conventions. You can still sign your name here: Sign America's Second Bill of Rights.

“We built this country, we wake it up and we put it to sleep and it’s time to take it back!” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the crowd. “Hard work alone has never led to decent wages and benefits and retirement for every American. It’s hard work and activism.”

And when Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz mentioned that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had chosen Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his running mate that very morning, the crowd booed loudly.

"I couldn't agree more," she said. "What a devastating impact a Romney-Ryan administration would have for America’s working families. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are both top-down and backward for the American worker."