Press Releases

The parties involved in the Verizon labor dispute, including the senior leadership of the unions and the company and their bargaining teams, met today in Washington with Labor Secretary Tom Perez and Allison Beck, an experienced federal mediator who the parties agreed today would assist in the ongoing contract negotiations.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez met at the U.S. Labor Department with Lowell McAdam, chairman and CEO of Verizon; Chris Shelton, president of the Communications Workers of America; and Lonnie Stephenson, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Over the course of a four-day visit to the Philippines this week, four representatives of Communications Workers of America who are on strike discovered that the extent to which Verizon is offshoring work is far beyond what has previously been reported and what the company publicly has claimed.

Verizon workers remain on strike and are standing strong on the picket lines. At negotiating sessions in Westchester and Philadelphia today, executives refused to back off of callous proposals that would hurt working families and destroy middle class jobs, including shipping jobs overseas and outsourcing work. The company also failed to budge on the issues facing Verizon Wireless workers.

Members of the Communications Workers of America are marking Workers’ Memorial Day, April 28, with solemn remembrances of co-workers killed, hurt or sickened on the job, and determination to end the toll of workplace injuries.