Message to Verizon: 'Tear Down The Wall'

Hundreds of CWA shop stewards across the country leafleted employees at Verizon locations on June 29, kicking off an education and membership mobilization campaign to prevent the company from sending bargaining unit work to non-union technicians and service reps acquired in Verizon's recent purchase of MCI.

"Tear Down the Wall," screams the headline on the leaflet distributed by stewards to about 66,000 CWA-represented employees at Verizon.

"We want to welcome former MCI employees into our union," said District 2 Vice President Pete Catucci, "but instead of allowing that to happen, Verizon has used them to set up Verizon Business (VZB) and is sending work out of our bargaining units. We want to be partners with the company, but we cannot allow this to continue."

The flier points out that:

• Tech work and service orders for pre-merger customers like the University of Maryland, Con Edison and Washington Mutual Bank have been shifted to VZB.
  
  
• In buildings with both Verizon and MCI MUXes (multiplexers), new circuits are all going onto the MCI/VZB MUX.
  
  
• New work that would have flowed to the bargaining unit never materializes. New buildings for the New York Times and Bank of America require multiple voice and data lines, but not a single service order for either has come to union service reps.
  
  
• Even though Verizon claims core and VZB computer systems are separate — and core employees have no access to VZB's systems — a union tech has had calls from VZB to check up on trouble tickets.

In District 9, Jim Weitkamp, assistant to Vice President Tony Bixler, said members handbilled throughout the entire California bargaining unit, at all work locations and stores. Among East Coast locations, CWA Representative Jimmy Tarlau reported strong participation by District 2 locals.

Said Les Evans, Maryland Local 2108 president, "Service reps that used to handle Bank of America work have seen their work disappear. They've been told by managers that it has gone over to Verizon Business. If our people are not taking those orders, doing the design work or the installs, it's pretty plain that work our folks were doing has gone over to VZB." 

"Our people are seeing their work disappear," said District 13 CWA Representative Pam Tronsor. "They're receiving calls from the MCI reps asking how to write up service orders, asking them how to do their work." She said statewide locals 13000 and 13500 had chief stewards and stewards speak with members one-on-one and pass out fliers, and she said that Locals 13100 and 13101 in Delaware did the same.

District 1 locals throughout New Jersey, New York and New England also leafleted. Said Xavier Spencer, a Local 1109 shop steward in Brooklyn, "We need to do whatever is necessary to protect our jobs. We cannot allow the company to ignore our contract. We cannot allow the company to build a wall around us and take our work."

The flier graphically shows that, while about two-thirds of the company's revenue currently derives from bargaining unit work, if the current trend of shifting business customers to VZB continues, by 2007 that ratio will have been reversed.

CWA is pursuing discussions with the company as well as grievances and legal options, but said Catucci, "We also need to let the company know we will not sit quietly by and watch our work disappear."