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Hundreds at Information Services Choose CWA
Union Fights for Verizon Workers' Organizing Rights
Verizon has dishonored its contractual obligation of neutrality and card-check recognition in CWA organizing campaigns, contesting in federal district court a recent American Arbitration Association certification for 520 Information Services employees in New York state; opposing a separate NLRB filing for 300 workers in New Jersey; and calling for a single bargaining unit that would include Information Services employees throughout the company’s 12-state region.
Meanwhile, CWA has filed multiple charges with the National Labor Relations Board, spotlighting the company’s illegal and improper conduct during an organizing campaign and its refusal to negotiate with a certified bargaining unit.
Verizon Information Services workers are organizing in CWA District 13, Pennsylvania and Delaware; District 2, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia; District 1, New York, New Jersey and New England; and in District 9, California and Nevada, at former GTE properties.
“Verizon needs to understand that having a constructive relationship with CWA means honoring its commitment to card check and neutrality, not only in Information Services but also in Wireless and across former GTE properties,” said CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, who directs CWA’s organizing program.
Early this year organizers from two CWA locals, supported by District 1 staff, fanned out to seven Verizon Information Services offices in New York state. They conducted meetings, helped workers build strong inside organizing committees, stuffed envelopes for mailings and called workers at home.
“We learned what Verizon thinks about neutrality,”
said District 1 Organizing Coordinator Jeff Lacher. “They don’t give a damn about it."
Local 1123 Organizers Nikki Merritt, Nancy Fleming and Michael Fikes concentrated on Verizon offices in Syracuse, Binghamton and Watertown, while Local 1118 Organizer Pat Cumo, a full-time Verizon employee, concentrated on four offices in the Albany area.
Lacher said inside sales reps, and premise reps who make site visits, wanted changes in a compensation plan that penalizes them if they do not make quotas from the previous six-week cycle or if a big account fails to renew. Other reasons they chose to organize is that supervisors have too much control over account leads and that workers can be transferred to any facility if they fail to cooperate. The unit also includes graphic artists, support staff and other workers.
“We launched cards Feb. 5 and had a majority statewide within 10 days. Once we started, it went lightning fast because there was so much interest,” Lacher said.
CWA’s collective bargaining agreement with Verizon calls for neutrality on the part of the company and recognition of the union in any unit where the American Arbitration Association certifies that a majority of workers have signed cards requesting representation.
Management violated the neutrality pact, Lacher said, by holding one-on-one meetings with workers, warning them that if they unionized, they would lose sales incentives such as vacations in Hawaii and company cars, and that the company would end promotions from within. Also, said Lacher, workers were told that “the pay plan is here to stay and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
In addition, Lacher said, management threw up a series of roadblocks to delay certification. First it challenged the content of the bargaining unit, which would go to arbitration. Then it refused to agree on an arbitrator. Then it wouldn’t agree to an arbitration date.
“We saw which way things were going and decided to file a petition with the NLRB to determine the appropriate unit,” Lacher said.
A hearing was set for March 10, but never took place. A couple of minutes before the hearing, Lacher said, “they (management) agreed to the unit.”
After certification, management began pressuring workers to write letters rescinding their authorization cards, then filed a federal lawsuit claiming that these statements should count against CWA recognition and certification.
District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino joined about 40 Information Services workers in Albany on April 5 to await the results of the card check.
“It was a wonderful experience to announce the certification to them and see the look on their faces when they finally had representation,” Mancino said.
The next morning Mancino, CWA Research Economist Bob Master and Local 1118 officers joined the workers for a triumphant walk into the Albany Information Services office. “People were motivated, they were excited,” Mancino said. “It was like a weight was lifted off their shoulders.”
Still the company kept up its anti-union pressure and refused to bargain. “On March 29, we filed a separate NLRB petition for 300 workers in New Jersey,” said Ed Sabol, administrative assistant to Mancino. “We had a hearing and Verizon filed a lawsuit in federal court to try and block the petition. It claimed the unit needed to be all (Information Services workers) from New York to West Virginia, but the company had already agreed to a separate unit in New York.”
Sabol said the NLRB is investigating CWA’s charges filed in connection with the New York campaign.
Mancino received a statewide vote of support for the New York unit at a local presidents’ meeting April 10.
Verizon has dishonored its contractual obligation of neutrality and card-check recognition in CWA organizing campaigns, contesting in federal district court a recent American Arbitration Association certification for 520 Information Services employees in New York state; opposing a separate NLRB filing for 300 workers in New Jersey; and calling for a single bargaining unit that would include Information Services employees throughout the company’s 12-state region.
Meanwhile, CWA has filed multiple charges with the National Labor Relations Board, spotlighting the company’s illegal and improper conduct during an organizing campaign and its refusal to negotiate with a certified bargaining unit.
Verizon Information Services workers are organizing in CWA District 13, Pennsylvania and Delaware; District 2, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia; District 1, New York, New Jersey and New England; and in District 9, California and Nevada, at former GTE properties.
“Verizon needs to understand that having a constructive relationship with CWA means honoring its commitment to card check and neutrality, not only in Information Services but also in Wireless and across former GTE properties,” said CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, who directs CWA’s organizing program.
Early this year organizers from two CWA locals, supported by District 1 staff, fanned out to seven Verizon Information Services offices in New York state. They conducted meetings, helped workers build strong inside organizing committees, stuffed envelopes for mailings and called workers at home.
“We learned what Verizon thinks about neutrality,”
said District 1 Organizing Coordinator Jeff Lacher. “They don’t give a damn about it."
Local 1123 Organizers Nikki Merritt, Nancy Fleming and Michael Fikes concentrated on Verizon offices in Syracuse, Binghamton and Watertown, while Local 1118 Organizer Pat Cumo, a full-time Verizon employee, concentrated on four offices in the Albany area.
Lacher said inside sales reps, and premise reps who make site visits, wanted changes in a compensation plan that penalizes them if they do not make quotas from the previous six-week cycle or if a big account fails to renew. Other reasons they chose to organize is that supervisors have too much control over account leads and that workers can be transferred to any facility if they fail to cooperate. The unit also includes graphic artists, support staff and other workers.
“We launched cards Feb. 5 and had a majority statewide within 10 days. Once we started, it went lightning fast because there was so much interest,” Lacher said.
CWA’s collective bargaining agreement with Verizon calls for neutrality on the part of the company and recognition of the union in any unit where the American Arbitration Association certifies that a majority of workers have signed cards requesting representation.
Management violated the neutrality pact, Lacher said, by holding one-on-one meetings with workers, warning them that if they unionized, they would lose sales incentives such as vacations in Hawaii and company cars, and that the company would end promotions from within. Also, said Lacher, workers were told that “the pay plan is here to stay and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
In addition, Lacher said, management threw up a series of roadblocks to delay certification. First it challenged the content of the bargaining unit, which would go to arbitration. Then it refused to agree on an arbitrator. Then it wouldn’t agree to an arbitration date.
“We saw which way things were going and decided to file a petition with the NLRB to determine the appropriate unit,” Lacher said.
A hearing was set for March 10, but never took place. A couple of minutes before the hearing, Lacher said, “they (management) agreed to the unit.”
After certification, management began pressuring workers to write letters rescinding their authorization cards, then filed a federal lawsuit claiming that these statements should count against CWA recognition and certification.
District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino joined about 40 Information Services workers in Albany on April 5 to await the results of the card check.
“It was a wonderful experience to announce the certification to them and see the look on their faces when they finally had representation,” Mancino said.
The next morning Mancino, CWA Research Economist Bob Master and Local 1118 officers joined the workers for a triumphant walk into the Albany Information Services office. “People were motivated, they were excited,” Mancino said. “It was like a weight was lifted off their shoulders.”
Still the company kept up its anti-union pressure and refused to bargain. “On March 29, we filed a separate NLRB petition for 300 workers in New Jersey,” said Ed Sabol, administrative assistant to Mancino. “We had a hearing and Verizon filed a lawsuit in federal court to try and block the petition. It claimed the unit needed to be all (Information Services workers) from New York to West Virginia, but the company had already agreed to a separate unit in New York.”
Sabol said the NLRB is investigating CWA’s charges filed in connection with the New York campaign.
Mancino received a statewide vote of support for the New York unit at a local presidents’ meeting April 10.