Vet Fights for His Country – and Now for His Rights at Verizon Business

Verizon Business technician and Air National Guardsman Terry Skiest has an American flag and a Massachusetts state flag that have flown in battle zones with him in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he proudly displayed them outside his work cubicle in Acton, Mass.  But to enforce a new "anti-solicitation policy" aimed at blocking the posting of pro-union organizing materials, management pulled down the flags when Skiest, a union supporter, returned to 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 – which is available via the site – to help Skiest get his message out. Visitors to the website can send a message of protest to Verizon.

"Those flags flew with me in Iraq and flew outside my tent 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 grant union recognition 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 co-workers say they are determined to continue their fight for justice until management puts the flags back up 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."