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CWA Members Protest Telecom Layoffs
CWA members are fighting back against Verizon, SBC Communications and other telecom companies that are cutting jobs despite good profits and high executive compensation.
In San Antonio, Texas, more than 500 workers rallied outside SBC's corporate headquarters to protest the company's announced job cuts and its strategy of hiring contractors to do the work of permanent employees. An airplane trailed a banner calling on SBC to "Stop the Layoffs" as union members cheered and chanted against the job cuts.
CWA members traveled from throughout Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas to send SBC the message that job cuts are harming workers and the quality service customers expect from SBC, District 6 Vice President Andy Milburn said. Milburn addressed the rally along with CWA Vice President Emeritus T.O. Moses, who headed CWA's telecommunications unit before his retirement this year, and Texas AFL-CIO President Joe Gunn.
Milburn called the rally "the beginning of a campaign to save our jobs" and to pressure SBC to cut down on excessive subcontracting. SBC has hired at least 17,000 contract workers who perform many of the same jobs as unionized workers, he said.
The real SBC employees, who provide essential telephone service to the public everyday, "are the people who have made the company so successful, but SBC has made no effort to shift work from the contractors who work for substandard wages and no benefits to core employees who get the job done," he said.
In Boston, hundreds of workers from CWA and the IBEW rallied outside Verizon's headquarters in response to the company's proposed job cuts that could furlough nearly 1,000 workers in the New England area and 3,000 more in New York and the mid-Atlantic.
At the rally, CWA District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino put Verizon on notice that CWA members are prepared to stand tough and fight for their jobs. CWA members across Verizon territory have been mobilizing against the company's announced job cutbacks, stressing that the cuts will harm quality service and result in growing customer complaints.
New York CWA members delivered the same message to Verizon at a rally just a few days later in lower Manhattan, with several thousand CWAers wearing red and asking Verizon, "Can you hear us now?"
That has become the theme of a CWA media campaign in New York that features radio, print and television ads linking quality customer service and quality jobs. The ads alert customers that the quality telephone service they depend on is threatened by Verizon's continuing job and cost cutting.
Another print ad reminds customers that CWA members were responsible for restoring communications that enabled the New York Stock Exchange to reopen just six days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, yet many of those same workers are being threatened with layoffs, despite Verizon's billions in profits.
CWA also has been working with state and local elected officials throughout New York and with the state's Public Service Commission to focus attention on Verizon's increasing service problems and systems in need of immediate repair.
In California, CWA locals also are fighting back against job cuts announced by SBC Communications. Workers are signing a petition to SBC chairman Ed Whitacre protesting the company's planned layoffs as a poor business decision that will hurt customers and workers.
Other mobilization actions included marches and rallies in San Jose, Calif., and a mail campaign from members to Sen. Barbara Boxer, asking for her support.
In San Antonio, Texas, more than 500 workers rallied outside SBC's corporate headquarters to protest the company's announced job cuts and its strategy of hiring contractors to do the work of permanent employees. An airplane trailed a banner calling on SBC to "Stop the Layoffs" as union members cheered and chanted against the job cuts.
CWA members traveled from throughout Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas to send SBC the message that job cuts are harming workers and the quality service customers expect from SBC, District 6 Vice President Andy Milburn said. Milburn addressed the rally along with CWA Vice President Emeritus T.O. Moses, who headed CWA's telecommunications unit before his retirement this year, and Texas AFL-CIO President Joe Gunn.
Milburn called the rally "the beginning of a campaign to save our jobs" and to pressure SBC to cut down on excessive subcontracting. SBC has hired at least 17,000 contract workers who perform many of the same jobs as unionized workers, he said.
The real SBC employees, who provide essential telephone service to the public everyday, "are the people who have made the company so successful, but SBC has made no effort to shift work from the contractors who work for substandard wages and no benefits to core employees who get the job done," he said.
In Boston, hundreds of workers from CWA and the IBEW rallied outside Verizon's headquarters in response to the company's proposed job cuts that could furlough nearly 1,000 workers in the New England area and 3,000 more in New York and the mid-Atlantic.
At the rally, CWA District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino put Verizon on notice that CWA members are prepared to stand tough and fight for their jobs. CWA members across Verizon territory have been mobilizing against the company's announced job cutbacks, stressing that the cuts will harm quality service and result in growing customer complaints.
New York CWA members delivered the same message to Verizon at a rally just a few days later in lower Manhattan, with several thousand CWAers wearing red and asking Verizon, "Can you hear us now?"
That has become the theme of a CWA media campaign in New York that features radio, print and television ads linking quality customer service and quality jobs. The ads alert customers that the quality telephone service they depend on is threatened by Verizon's continuing job and cost cutting.
Another print ad reminds customers that CWA members were responsible for restoring communications that enabled the New York Stock Exchange to reopen just six days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, yet many of those same workers are being threatened with layoffs, despite Verizon's billions in profits.
CWA also has been working with state and local elected officials throughout New York and with the state's Public Service Commission to focus attention on Verizon's increasing service problems and systems in need of immediate repair.
In California, CWA locals also are fighting back against job cuts announced by SBC Communications. Workers are signing a petition to SBC chairman Ed Whitacre protesting the company's planned layoffs as a poor business decision that will hurt customers and workers.
Other mobilization actions included marches and rallies in San Jose, Calif., and a mail campaign from members to Sen. Barbara Boxer, asking for her support.