Verizon Business Must Pledge to Stop Violating Workers' Rights

In agreeing to settle CWA charges of illegal union-busting by Verizon Business in Pennsylvania, the company was ordered by the NLRB to post notices affirming the workers' rights to organize and declaring that it will no longer engage in coercive threats to prevent workers from unionizing.

CWA filed charges on behalf of Verizon Business techs in both New York and Pennsylvania, and in early October NLRB regional directors issued complaints against the company and ordered hearings over the charges. A similar settlement is expected in the New York case.

Several hundred technicians at the former MCI unit, which Verizon set up as a separate non-union business, have been organizing with CWA and IBEW throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic and have petitioned for representation based on majority union support, as validated by congressional and community leaders in Boston and New York.

In the Pennsylvania settlement, the notice Verizon Business is required to post at worksites for 60 days clearly describes the nature of the illegal abuses that CWA and the workers charged.  Verizon must pledge:

--  "We will not engage in surveillance or actions intended to create the impression that employees' union activities are under surveillance."

--  "We will not threaten employees with layoff for supporting the union or ask them to inform us if they requested return of union authorization cards they had signed."

--  "We will not enforce our... no solicitation/no distribution policy against employees because they have engaged in concerted or union activities or to discourage employees from engaging in such activities."

--  "We will not in any like or related manner interfere with, restrain or coerce our employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed by" (federal labor laws).

--  "We will cancel the written warning issued to (a key union supporter), expunge reference to said warning from our files and inform (the worker) that this has been done."

Among other rights, Verizon Business must let workers know that "Federal law gives you the right to form, join or assist a union."

Given the pro-business and anti-union record of this labor board in recent years, the settlement shows just how blatant and egregious Verizon Business's anti-worker behavior has been, said CWA President Larry Cohen.