Why We Need the Employee Free Choice Act
Verizon Wireless in the Workplace: A Clear Pattern of Illegal Discrimination, Unlawful Behavior, and Union Avoidance
Verizon Wireless is one of the nation's biggest wireless providers, serving 42 million customers.
It's also a company that shows total disregard for labor law and the right of employees to make a free choice about union representation in the workplace.
Over the past few years, workers at Verizon Wireless who wanted a union voice have been fired and laid off, harassed and intimidated by supervisors, required to attend "captive audience" meetings and otherwise instructed that union supporters weren't welcome at Verizon Wireless.
Call centers that had a growing number of union supporters were shut down between 2000 and 2004, putting 2,000 people out of work in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey and transferring that work to the Southeast.
Verizon Wireless repeatedly broke the agreement it made with the Communications Workers of America in 2000 to remain neutral in union campaigns in Verizon Wireless workplaces in the Northeast, and to adopt a system of cardcheck recognition to enable workers to freely choose union representation.
Instead, Verizon Wireless chose litigation, endless delay and old-fashioned union-busting, complete with an anti-union website, threats of plant closings, surveillance of union supporters and an aggressive campaign against CWA.
Regional directors of the National Labor Relations Board continue to issue complaints against Verizon Wireless, most recently last fall for firing two employees in Rockland County, N.Y., and Pittsburgh, Pa., who were union supporters. Other complaints cited Verizon Wireless for retaliatory discipline against two union activists, enforcement of an illegal rule against union solicitation and interference with employee discussions.
But the penalties for breaking current labor law aren't much of a deterrent. Under one settlement Verizon Wireless reached with the NLRB, the company merely had to post a notice promising "not to do anything that interferes with, restrains or coerces our employees" in the future. This was sent to workers at the shut down Massachusetts center.
Members of Congress who support the Employee Free Choice Act are urged to hold Verizon Wireless to the standards of that legislation: neutrality, cardcheck recognition and a work environment for employees that is free of intimidation and harassment.
Congressman George Miller (D-Calif.) is circulating a letter from House Members to Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon Wireless' parent company, calling for full compliance with the letter and spirit of federal labor law.
If you haven't yet signed on, please consider adding your name and making a stand for true workers' rights.
CWA, IBEW and the AFL-CIO are working together to restore workers' rights for Verizon Wireless workers.
