15,000 Verizon Workers Jam NY City Streets for A Fair Contract

More than 15,000 Verizon workers and allies turned downtown New York City streets into a sea of red shirts last Saturday to fight the company's effort to gut decades of bargained for gains in pensions, health care, sick leave, pay and more.

"It's all about good jobs" is the message that 15,000 Verizon workers took to the New York City streets last Saturday in a massive mobilization rally for a fair contract.

Below: The downtown rally by Verizon headquarters was one of the city's largest union demonstrations, with marchers stretched along four city blocks.

Many of the thousands of workers, outraged over Verizon's bargaining proposals, traveled hundreds of miles to the rally, many bringing their families. CWAers from southern Virginia boarded buses at midnight, and others traveled from Connecticut. CWA members from Verizon West came from California to show solidarity with their brothers and sisters from CWA Districts 1 and 2-13 even though they aren't part of the current Verizon East negotiations.

Despite huge profits and multimillion dollar compensation for top execs, Verizon came to the bargaining table with a list of retrogressive demands that would roll back years of gains in workers' living standards. At the rally, CWA President Larry Cohen blistered the company for its recent decision to pay a $4.5 billion dividend to its wireless business partner Vodafone.

"We are here to say to them if you can pay Vodafone at this time, in the last 7 days of negotiations, a $4.5 billion in a dividend that you haven't paid in years, you can pay us. Workers across this country, and across this company must stand up and must fight back. This is what democracy looks like, not what's going on in Washington right now."

On stage, speaker after speaker slammed the company for demanding more work for much less compensation. "What they want to do is to throw away 60 years of bargaining," said CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton, holding up the current contract, ripping out pages one by one. "We're not going to let it happen." Shelton said. "What they really want to do is to bust your union. They want to gut the middle class and they're starting with you."

CWA District 2-13 Vice President Ed Mooney urged workers to take the fight into their workplaces. "It's our job to take our message to management every day until they take their proposals off the bargaining table. We must take our message to management into every workplace and tell them that we are not going back — and that they are not taking it back."

Joining CWA leaders was IBEW International President Edwin Hill, whose union is bargaining with CWA for 10,000 members at Verizon. He vowed that workers' unity would force the company to negotiate a fair contract. "Verizon needs a history lesson, and school is in," he said, referring to victory in contract battles of the past.

A long list of local politicians gave the workers full support. Christine Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council, exhorted the crowd to "fight to keep your benefits. Verizon is a very profitable corporation, and it's YOU who have made them profitable." State Senator Diane Savino reminded Verizon who is responsible for its success and profitability. "Labor creates the wealth. Labor should share in the wealth," she said. State assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries got the crowd rocking by calling Verizon executives out, vowing that regulators would keep the company's feet to the fire. "The Public Service Commission has jurisdiction over Verizon because it deals in a public service," he said. "But it is you who create that service, not the corporate executives in that building. They must be held accountable."

Other speakers included CWA Secretary-Treasurer Annie Hill, New York State AFL-CIO President Dennis Hughes, New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, SEIU 32B-J Secretary-Treasurer Hector Figueroa, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Senate Minority Leader John Sampson, State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, State Senator Adriano Espaillat, Assemblyman Jim Brennan, Assemblyman Peter Abbate, and Councilman Vincent Gentile.

View video from the rally here, here, and here.