Telecom News: Verizon Members Press to 'Tear Down the Wall'

CWA locals and members at Verizon have been conducting a campaign to "Tear Down the Wall" between CWA and IBEW bargaining units and workers at non-union Verizon Business — composed of former MCI workers — and Verizon Wireless.
"It's clear that Verizon has a divide-and-conquer strategy aimed at shrinking the union presence and reducing our bargaining power while exploiting our co-workers who don't have the benefit of a union contract. It's vital that we stand together and defeat that strategy," said CWA President Larry Cohen.

(Distirct 1 locals, pictured on left, march in the New York City Labor Day parade, calling attention to union-busting at Verizon Business and Wireless.)

Union workers at Verizon now represent 40 percent of the total workforce, down from 50 percent three years ago largely because of Verizon's purchase of MCI. If the former MCI and the Verizon Wireless workers were allowed to organize, the union bargaining units would grow to 60 percent.

Workers in both non-union operations have expressed a strong desire to unionize. However, the company's track record at Wireless has shown it will go to great lengths to crush organizing drives.

"Management continually strikes fear into the hearts of workers," said Clyde Rucker, a former Verizon Wireless service rep who was fired for attempting to organizing co-workers in Laurel, Md. Now he and Lynette Snell, a Local 2107 organizer, and volunteers from the local leaflet at Wireless locations every week and maintain contact with core supporters. "They want a union but they are scared to death," said Rucker.

Snell said management called the police on their last visit, even though the organizers were breaking no laws. "They want the workers to see the police out there, It's another way of giving workers the message that unions are trouble."

Furthering its efforts to become a non-union company, Verizon has been shifting work from the core company to the new Verizon Business. CWA's response has been to monitor and resist the transfer of union work, to reach out to the former MCI employees, and to send a strong message to management: "Tear Down the Wall!"

"We want to welcome former MCI employees into our union," said CWA District 2 Vice President Pete Catucci, "but we need to let the company know we will not sit quietly by and watch our work disappear."

Stewards have been leafleting at Verizon locations nationwide to let members know that the company is shifting major customers including Daimler-Chrysler, Bank of America, Con Edison, the State of Maine and University of Maryland from the core business to Verizon Business.

Other work that would have flowed to the bargaining unit never materializes. New buildings for the New York Times and Bank of America require extensive voice and data lines, but not a single service order has come to union service reps.

Said District 13 Vice President Jim Short, "There's no question where the work is going. Our members get calls from the MCI reps asking how to write up service orders."

"Tear Down the Wall" campaign activities were continuing in mid-November as CWA members leafleted major customers whose work had been shifted non-union, letting them and the public know how Verizon is attacking good job standards.

Meanwhile, CWA organizers are reaching out to former MCI workers nationwide. "These people are looking to the union because they have no guaranteed future," said Yonah Camacho Diamond of Local 9415, Oakland, Calif. Local organizers have held meetings with technicians up and down the state and in Nevada.

Local 2222 and Local 2201 organized a rally and handbilling at Verizon Business in Ashburn, Va. Local 2201's Chris Block said organizers have had meetings with Verizon Business workers in Northern Virginia and found: "The workers are very interested, very positive about organizing but, of course, they're scared. They were told if they attempted to organize, they'd be replaced by contractors."

CWA's telecom vice presidents together with local leaders are developing a Strategic Industry Fund campaign calling for "Total Engagement with Verizon," designed to change the company's anti-union attitude and build CWA bargaining power leading up to negotiations in 2008 and 2009.

The campaign will be a sustained effort to break down the union/non-union barriers and battle union-busting tactics used against directory workers at Verizon Information Systems.

For more information on "Tear Down the Wall" and to sign up for Unity@Verizon e-mail updates, go to ga.cwa-union.org/verizon.