Verizon Contract Proposals Endanger Workers' Future

As anyone following the contract struggles of Verizon employees for the past year knows, the Company’s strategy is to destroy middle-class jobs and roll back benefits earned over decades of hard work. In Districts 1 and 2-13, the cuts to wages and benefits that Verizon is asking for are shocking. Proposals on the table in each District demonstrate a basic lack of good faith, for example:

Wages that don’t keep up with the cost of living. No retroactive wage increases for the more than twelve months of stalled negotiations. Only minimal wage increases in 2012 (1.75 %) and 2013 (1.5%).

Higher health care premiums and fewer benefits. Premiums would increase by 6% per year, with an additional $600 per year cost for tobacco users. The Company proposes less coverage for vital services, such as anesthesia, chemotherapy, and birthing centers. Members would have to cover 10% of these costs out-of-pocket, though now 100% of the costs are covered by the health plan. Co-pays would rise dramatically for Urgent Care and Emergency Care.

And perhaps most shocking, Verizon would like to eliminate completely the cap on out-of-pocket prescription payments and significantly increase the co-pay amounts for prescription drugs. And for retirees—an already vulnerable group—the Company wants new yearly premiums, plus higher out-of-pocket costs.

Pensions gutted for those currently covered and no pensions at all for new hires. It’s hard to overstate the harm the Company proposals would do to employees working for a secure retirement.

• Everyone currently on the Verizon payroll will have their benefits frozen and earn only 70% of the current value until reaching 30 years of service.
• At 30 years of service, no more time could be accrued toward a pension.
• The lump sum pension option will be eliminated.
• Anyone hired after August 1, 2012, would not be eligible to participate in the pension plan at all.

Job Security becomes a thing of the past. Workers hired before August 3, 2003, would not be covered by previous contract commitments to no layoffs or forced transfers. Job Security, Force Adjustment Plans, New Contracting, and Movement of Work provisions in previous contracts would be eliminated, and Verizon would surely seize the opportunity to move jobs around the country and offer no guarantees of job security.

Lower base pay for new sales jobs. The Company proposals would create new, lower-paid sales job titles. Workers in these new positions would make 70% of a Service Representative’s pay rate and have to make up the rest in commissions, opening the door to many workers who would be underpaid for their time and skills.

For more details about the proposals Verizon is making, take a look at bargaining updates here:

District 1
http://www.cwa-union.org/d1vz

District 2-13
http://www.cwa-union.org/d2-13vz