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Mobilization and Public Support Make All the Difference
As CWA members walked the picket lines, some analysts and news reports questioned, as the New York Times did in its strike coverage on Aug. 10, 2000, whether Verizon had underestimated CWA members’ resolve to win their goals of securing jobs and good job conditions — and whether the company had been prepared either to negotiate or prepare for a possible strike.
But there was no question that CWA and its members were well prepared for this round of talks. In fact, members began getting ready as long ago as last year, putting together mobilization teams, planning for “flying squadrons,” building public support and taking the message to the company’s shareholders and investors.
The road to victory began in January, when locals started putting together their mobilization programs and bargaining plans. Over the next few months, members received more information about Bargaining 2000 — facts about past bargaining accomplishments, what was at stake in this round of negotiations and what the future of the industry holds for CWA members.
When shareholders met in Denver in May, CWA members were there too, with their own “Report to Employee Shareholders.” When negotiations opened on June 26, members across Verizon territory held rallies and workplace actions to focus attention on the talks.
When talks failed and strike started August 6, rallies across Verizon territory drew hundreds, and in some cases, thousands, of workers and their families, along with supporters from religious, student and community groups. Jobs with Justice members in New England rallied for organizing rights for wireless workers and retirees vowed not to answer Verizon’s call to replace strikers.
Children walked the picket lines with their parents and, at special children’s rallies, told the crowds why they were there. Squads of mobile pickets followed their work and set up picket lines wherever they were needed.
Members Tell It to the Media
Because of the extensive information effort in CWA’s mobilization, rank-and-file picketers were “on message” as they eloquently told reporters why they were out there:“‘We have a lot of single parents, and it is hard for them. The company is telling them to make a choice between their family and Verizon,’ said Pat Carter-Farah, a striking worker picketing Tuesday in Baltimore,” the Associated Press reported from the lines.
“‘My family doesn’t want to get uprooted any more than yours does, but this company doesn’t care about that possibility,’ said Richard Leath, 50, who works as a line splicer for Verizon in Brooklyn,” the New York Times reported.
Messages like his built strong public support. On the picket lines, strikers often got a chorus of honks, friendly waves, thumbs-up and shouts of support from passersby, boxes of doughnuts and cases of soft drinks from fellow union members.
A radio advertising campaign reinforced for the public two of CWA’s most important issues: the excessive hours of overtime many members were forced to work — described by two customer service employees — and concerns about the possible transfer of thousands of jobs now that regional Bell Atlantic and nationwide GTE have merged to form Verizon.
Puerto Rican Solidarity
Rallies weren’t confined to Verizon’s East Coast territory. In Puerto Rico, hundreds of telephone workers who are now Verizon employees as a result of their company’s merger with GTE, rallied in support of the strikers. The Puerto Rican workers, members of the Independent Union of Telephone Workers, have been bargaining with Verizon for several months and are presently working without a contract. They offered their support to Verizon strikers and pledged to step up mobilization and job actions to help win agreements for both groups.
Public support for the strikers also poured in was voiced to Verizon by CWA’s counterpart unions all over the world.
All these actions expanded public support, strengthened the union’s bargaining teams and enabled CWA to achieve the goals members set as most important: job security, relief from job stress and excessive forced overtime, organizing rights for wireless workers, and securing CWA members’ future at Verizon. These goals, and much more, were achieved in the Verizon settlement.
Walking in Our Shoes
Over the course of the strike, some 30,000 managers worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to try to do the jobs of 85,000 workers. Some of them admitted they couldn’t do it and expressed their appreciation of CWA members’ skills.
“I have a great deal of respect for the people who do it, having done it myself,” one was quoted in the New York Times. Another manager said trying to fill in for strikers “really gives you an appreciation of the work that the union folks do. It’s invaluable.”
The strike also forced Verizon to cut back significantly on maintenance and repair work, and left many customers unable to reach directory assistance or customer service. Twelve days into the strike, Verizon acknowledged there were 100,000 repair orders waiting for service.
The settlement won big praise from throughout the labor movement.
Marcus Courtney, co-founder of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, CWA, said the Verizon settlement will help in organizing and representation efforts at Microsoft and other high-tech companies, “because it shows that the largest company in a key high-tech industry is not off limits. Now we can hold up this example that says, ‘Your voice can be heard.’”
Summing up CWA’s mobilization effort, Executive Vice President Larry Cohen stated: “The real story behind this strike was the incredible education and mobilization campaign waged by our local unions and the mobilization activists in every district. It united our members behind a visionary set of organizing and job security demands, and gave us a rank-and-file hammer to prevail on those issues at the bargaining table. Without that effort, the outcome would not have been the same.”
But there was no question that CWA and its members were well prepared for this round of talks. In fact, members began getting ready as long ago as last year, putting together mobilization teams, planning for “flying squadrons,” building public support and taking the message to the company’s shareholders and investors.
The road to victory began in January, when locals started putting together their mobilization programs and bargaining plans. Over the next few months, members received more information about Bargaining 2000 — facts about past bargaining accomplishments, what was at stake in this round of negotiations and what the future of the industry holds for CWA members.
When shareholders met in Denver in May, CWA members were there too, with their own “Report to Employee Shareholders.” When negotiations opened on June 26, members across Verizon territory held rallies and workplace actions to focus attention on the talks.
When talks failed and strike started August 6, rallies across Verizon territory drew hundreds, and in some cases, thousands, of workers and their families, along with supporters from religious, student and community groups. Jobs with Justice members in New England rallied for organizing rights for wireless workers and retirees vowed not to answer Verizon’s call to replace strikers.
Children walked the picket lines with their parents and, at special children’s rallies, told the crowds why they were there. Squads of mobile pickets followed their work and set up picket lines wherever they were needed.
Members Tell It to the Media
Because of the extensive information effort in CWA’s mobilization, rank-and-file picketers were “on message” as they eloquently told reporters why they were out there:“‘We have a lot of single parents, and it is hard for them. The company is telling them to make a choice between their family and Verizon,’ said Pat Carter-Farah, a striking worker picketing Tuesday in Baltimore,” the Associated Press reported from the lines.
“‘My family doesn’t want to get uprooted any more than yours does, but this company doesn’t care about that possibility,’ said Richard Leath, 50, who works as a line splicer for Verizon in Brooklyn,” the New York Times reported.
Messages like his built strong public support. On the picket lines, strikers often got a chorus of honks, friendly waves, thumbs-up and shouts of support from passersby, boxes of doughnuts and cases of soft drinks from fellow union members.
A radio advertising campaign reinforced for the public two of CWA’s most important issues: the excessive hours of overtime many members were forced to work — described by two customer service employees — and concerns about the possible transfer of thousands of jobs now that regional Bell Atlantic and nationwide GTE have merged to form Verizon.
Puerto Rican Solidarity
Rallies weren’t confined to Verizon’s East Coast territory. In Puerto Rico, hundreds of telephone workers who are now Verizon employees as a result of their company’s merger with GTE, rallied in support of the strikers. The Puerto Rican workers, members of the Independent Union of Telephone Workers, have been bargaining with Verizon for several months and are presently working without a contract. They offered their support to Verizon strikers and pledged to step up mobilization and job actions to help win agreements for both groups.
Public support for the strikers also poured in was voiced to Verizon by CWA’s counterpart unions all over the world.
All these actions expanded public support, strengthened the union’s bargaining teams and enabled CWA to achieve the goals members set as most important: job security, relief from job stress and excessive forced overtime, organizing rights for wireless workers, and securing CWA members’ future at Verizon. These goals, and much more, were achieved in the Verizon settlement.
Walking in Our Shoes
Over the course of the strike, some 30,000 managers worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to try to do the jobs of 85,000 workers. Some of them admitted they couldn’t do it and expressed their appreciation of CWA members’ skills.
“I have a great deal of respect for the people who do it, having done it myself,” one was quoted in the New York Times. Another manager said trying to fill in for strikers “really gives you an appreciation of the work that the union folks do. It’s invaluable.”
The strike also forced Verizon to cut back significantly on maintenance and repair work, and left many customers unable to reach directory assistance or customer service. Twelve days into the strike, Verizon acknowledged there were 100,000 repair orders waiting for service.
The settlement won big praise from throughout the labor movement.
Marcus Courtney, co-founder of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, CWA, said the Verizon settlement will help in organizing and representation efforts at Microsoft and other high-tech companies, “because it shows that the largest company in a key high-tech industry is not off limits. Now we can hold up this example that says, ‘Your voice can be heard.’”
Summing up CWA’s mobilization effort, Executive Vice President Larry Cohen stated: “The real story behind this strike was the incredible education and mobilization campaign waged by our local unions and the mobilization activists in every district. It united our members behind a visionary set of organizing and job security demands, and gave us a rank-and-file hammer to prevail on those issues at the bargaining table. Without that effort, the outcome would not have been the same.”