"Why Are You Supporting the Competition, Mom?"

Standing with Verizon/Verizon Wireless Workers an Education for Kids and Grown-Ups

Kathy Hayes works for AT&T Mobility in Champaign, Ill., and Stan Wylie works for CenturyLink in Seattle, but it would be easy to mistake them lately for Verizon/Verizon Wireless workers.

That’s because both of them, along with their local colleagues and thousands of other CWA members around the country, are proudly supporting East Coast Verizon and Verizon Wireless workers before, during and since their two-week strike in August.

For Local 4202’s Hayes, it’s been a teachable moment for her 9-year-old son, who at times accompanied her to leaflet outside a local Verizon Wireless store.

Hayes: “He’s so interested, and it’s a lot of fun watching him learn about the union and what unions do for people. At first he was a little confused about why AT&T workers were helping Verizon/VZW workers. He asked, ‘Why are you supporting the competition, Mom?’ But now he understands more about how we all support each other in a union.

“He’s learned that we have weekends off because of unions, that we have vacation days because of unions, that I can be at his parent-teacher conference because I have a union contract.”

In downtown Seattle, Local 7800’s Wylie and other activists have been leafleting outside Verizon Wireless stores.

Wylie: “It’s one thing when corporations are struggling and they have to look for ways to survive, but everyone knows that’s clearly not the case for Verizon/VZW. The strike and the ongoing fight for a fair contract are important to all working people. Just like the public workers who are under attack in so many states, we’re sending a clear message that we’re not going to sit back and take any more abuse.”

Wylie says being involved isn’t a choice as much as a responsibility, when “you look historically at what the labor movement has done and how beneficial it’s been to our country. Now we’ve moved away from that and our country’s in a terrible spot.”

The fact that he’s lucky enough to have a good, union-represented job with benefits means he’s got that much more responsibility to act, he says.

“It’s not about me. It’s about our friends and neighbors, and a lot of them are struggling. And you never know what can happen. You can’t afford to be complacent.”