Telecom News - Iraq Vet Fighting for His Flag and His Rights at Verizon Business

Hundreds of coworkers and other supporters are backing an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran whose Verizon Business bosses stripped his cubicle of an American flag that he flew outside his tents while serving his country.

Verizon Business technician and Air National Guardsman Terry Skiest had both an American flag and a Massachusetts state flag that he'd taken with him on early tours of duty. He displayed them proudly outside his cubicle in Acton, Mass.

But to enforce a new "anti-solicitation policy" aimed at blocking the posting of pro-union organizing materials, managers pulled down the flags when Skiest left for his third tour of duty in Afghanistan last fall.

Skiest is fighting the company's action and is joined by hundreds of coworkers who are hanging flags in their own cubicles up and down the East Coast.  Supporters have also set up a website, www.puttheflagup.org, and produced a video, available via the site. Visitors to the website can send a message of protest to Verizon.

"Those flags flew with me in Iraq and in Afghanistan," Skiest said. "Now I'm back at my post at Verizon Business and I want to know why I can't display my flags outside my cubicle."

Managers told Skiest's co-worker, Mike Wheeler, that the flags "could be considered to be propaganda" and "might be offensive to some workers," Wheeler said.

Skiest and fellow VZB technicians in New York and New England signed cards showing majority union support last year, seeking representation through CWA and the IBEW. Verizon has refused to recognize the union even though local, state and national political leaders verified the card majority and have put pressure on the company to respect the workers' decision.

Skiest exhausted every internal avenue of redress with VZB's management and human resources department to reconsider their decision. He and his coworkers say they are determined to continue their fight until management puts the flags back where they belong.

VZB, formerly MCI, has several government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, including installing the wireless communications system in Baghdad. "If this company is on the side of men and women fighting for our country, why does it deny me the right to fly the American flag?" Skiest asks. "That seems un-American."