Verizon Refuses to Get Serious About Bargaining: Workers Standing Up for Middle Class Jobs, Benefits

Washington, D.C. -- Following is a statement by Candice Johnson, CWA Communications Director, on contract negotiations between CWA and Verizon. The current contract expires at midnight tonight:

“Negotiations between the Communications Workers of America and Verizon Communications are not moving forward. Contracts covering 45,000 Verizon workers are set to expire at midnight tonight.

Over months of negotiations, there has been no real bargaining by Verizon management. In fact, every major concession demand -- more than 100 in all – remains on the table.

Even at the 11th hour, with contracts set to expire, Verizon continues to seek to strip away 50 years of contract gains. Following the game plan of Wisconsin, Verizon is trying to destroy the collective bargaining process by refusing to engage seriously on the issues.

In the few hours left before contract expiration, Verizon can show that it’s serious about bargaining. If not, CWA members and our allies throughout the union movement are ready for the fight.”

Verizon is sitting on big assets – it has $100 billion in revenue and net profits of $6 billion. Verizon Wireless just paid its parent company and Vodaphone a $10 billion dividend. Verizon’s executive compensation is sky-high, and Chairman Ivan Seidenberg is paid 300 times what an average worker earns. The top five company executives were paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars over the past four years.

The contract covers 35,000 CWA represented workers and 10,000 IBEW-represented workers.

Read updates at www.cwa-union.org/Verizon.