Verizon N.C. Strike Centers on Family Issues

Brutal forced overtime requirements and a company demand to take away emergency leave to care for seriously ill family members drove 150 Local 3673 members to strike May 19 at Verizon South - Western North Carolina.

"Money isn't the issue. These members are fighting to able to protect and spend time with their families," said District 3 Vice President Jimmy Smith. "These are small mountain communities with strong family values," he said, noting that regular subcontractors in some cases have refused scab work and local merchants are voicing support and putting up strike signs and union informational materials on their premises.

The former GTE unit serves about a dozen small towns scattered within a 100-mile radius of Ashville, N.C. at the western edge of the state.

Among the top issues, Verizon wants to eliminate the contract provision allowing workers up to three days of leave to take family members to hospitals for surgery or emergency medical treatment and to bring them home when they are discharged.

Verizon also wants to increase unpaid "waiting days" for sickness absence, which would take away two paid sick days for many of the workers, said Local President Tommy Pool.

And the company won't talk about forced overtime even though many members are working 15 to 20 consecutive days, he said. Pool cited a recent example where a member had voluntarily worked about two weeks straight, but when he asked for Mother's Day off, it was denied and he was told, "Call your mother on the phone."

"The company simply isn't hiring enough people to keep up with the workload" and so the overtime demands are excessive, said Pool.