Patricia Cumo |
 | Pat is a Verizon retiree who spent 25 years with Verizon working as a Facilities Specialist (that’s engineering work). She live in Cohoes, NY, in the Capital Region, where she’s spent her whole life except for some time in Louisiana. Pat suffers from epilepsy and emphysema; Verizon’s proposals at the bargaining table, if enacted, would be personally devastating because of her health and financial needs. Corporate greed doesn't sit well with me. I'm ready to sacrifice to stop it. |
Mick DeLaValle | |
 | Mick is an Operations Clerk with 25 years at Verizon. A Navy veteran, he is single. In his spare time, Mick is a volunteer firefighter. He lives in Loudonville, NY and works in Menands, NY. |
Regina Frisoli |
 | Regina is an Engineering Drafter whose 30 year anniversary with Verizon is on November 12th, when she will be marching. Regina’s 82 year old father is a telephone company retiree (from Verizon’s corporate predecessors). He’s still active with the union, and leaflets at Verizon Wireless stores on Long Island every week to educate the public about Verizon Wireless. I'm marching because I'm able to and I'm doing it for the people who can't do it. I'm second generation in the company and I'm doing it for me and my father, who is retired. The money that they make is really surprising. The company used to be like a big family, but it's now totally corporate. What Lowell McAdams makes would pay for most of our salaries here on the march many, many times over. That's just wrong that the Verizon executives who are in the top of the very top make that much more than everyone else. |
Jimmy Gibbs |
 | Jimmy is a lineman with 13 years at Verizon. Jimmy lives on Long Island in Holbrooke NY. He works out of the Centereach garage. I know it's important and I felt like I had to step up. Now I can go and back and tell somebody 'you should be at the next union meeting.' I got a call Tuesday and I was out here the next day. I wanted someone from my local to be up here. |
Phil Griffith |
 | Phil has been with the company 15 years. He’s worked jobs from Operator Services to Residential Rep, and Business Rep. He’s currently an outside Technician. He works out of the Hoosick Road garage in Albany. When I worked for AT&T, we went through a layoff. I saw how badly it affected people’s lives when AT&T closed my office. We’re fighting for a fair contract that preserves our job security at Verizon. It’s important in a time with such high unemployment that people get reminded about corporate greed. It’s just plain wrong. Verizon is a profitable corporation and yet they are always threatening us. Our total workforce at Verizon has dropped by half in a decade. We’ve lost many managers to layoffs too. Losing all that talent is a huge problem for the workforce, our company and the economy. I’m marching against the corporations that lay off people just to increase profits. Verizon wants to do that and we’re not going to let them. I’m also marching to stop corporations from taking good jobs from working people in the United States and sending them overseas. We need Verizon and all the other corporations that have sent jobs overseas to bring those jobs back. |
Eric Von Hulha |
 | Eric is 27 years old and single. He's from the Bronx, but lives in Queens now. Been with the Working Families Party since June of this year. Went to Bennington College in Vermont and Baruch College studied English, and is working to complete his degree. I'm supporting CWA verizon workers. But it's not just about Verizon. Around the country unions support the rights of workers. I think it’s a big part of the 99%, and we're all in this together. When Occupy Wall Street and labor and all kinds of activists get together all for a cause, it’s sort of unstoppable. The momentum is really something and I feel that victories are going happen. I believe in building a coalition and that's why I'm there." |
Jake Lake |
 | Jake is an 11 year Lineman with Verizon. He’s married and has four kids and is a lifelong Binghamton, NY resident. His oldest daughter has heart and respiratory problems; getting her the right care with good doctors is critically important. Jake was layed off in 2002 when Verizon attempted to lay off workers in violation of the union’s contract. Jake got his job back thanks to the union and has been an especially strong activist since then. He works out of the Vestal, NY garage. This fight is very personal for me. I was one of the workers Verizon layed off in 2002 in violation of the contract. I got my job back thanks to the union and I've been a really strong union supporter ever since. What we're doing on the march is to continue the movement that's been started and continue to grow it. People need to be educated about what's going on. United we stand. Divided we fall. |
Naif Littles |
 | Naif is 25 years old and single not married. From Philadelphia, went to school in the Bronx top Fordham graduated in 2009, went to work for WFP and has worked there for 2 years. I'm going back to school to get my Masters in Public Administration so I can learn how to run a municipality. I want to learn how to develop places where there's a need for economic development and particularly good, union jobs. I also want to learn how to mobilize people and affect change with and for people who don’t have huge resources available to them. We're at a critical juncture right now. We have a very emboldened right wing which is working to decimate unions and public sector jobs like teachers, firefighters and poliecmen. At the same time we have huge corporations like the big banks on Wall Street who control our members of Congress. We have a huge inequality in wealth and it's incredibly important to stop these huge conglomerates every way we can. OWS is the most important movement we've seen in a long time. Change doesn't come from the top down. We can't rely on President Obama or members of Congress. It comes from us, that’s the only way it's happened in America throughout history. We need to stop the 1% from doing more damage and Verizon's a great example. When we got to Stuyvesant, there were just people there. And they were incredibly gracious and supportive. |
Manny Munoz |
 | Manny was born in Mexico in a small town across from the Southern tip of Texas. He grew up in Houston. 3 weeks after graduation Manny was in boot camp for the U.S. Army because he wanted to give back to his country for all he was able to get, including an education, which he wouldn't have gotten where he was from. That made Manny very patriotic. He served 8 years in active duty and is a veteran of Desert Storm. Started with Verizon in 1996 and has been with the company for 15 years. He's a Central Office Technician and is the unofficial Local 1118 videographer. Married with 3 kids, Malcolm 21, Celeste 16, and Serena 12. He's also a business owner with his wife Maureen, owning a hair salon in Guilderland. Maureen is an artist for Paul Mitchell and has a strong and devoted following. Manny also works at the busiess all the time. He also has a third job as a videographer. Manny also wrote a novel "Let go" and is in the process of making an independent film by the same name. I'm marching because I could do it and it's important. Not everybody is in the best shape and may not be able to do it for other reasons too. Anytime anything happens like this that is worth doing like this, it’s worth documenting. Because of the times we live in with social media, we need to shoot some video and document everything. Waiting for the media to spin things their way doesn’t work. Because of my background, the country I was born in, I think it's amazing that I live in a country where I can work my way up to have a position and have a job that's at one of the more profitable companies in the country. I'm very thankful for that. All we're asking for is bargaining in good faith and a good contract. That's not too much to ask. Nobody wants to beat Verizon into submission because we need them to stay strong. We want them to bargain in good faith for a good contract. |
Tom Oakley |
 | Tom is a FiOS Technician with 16 years with Verizon. He lives in Springville, NY in the same house he grew up in. Tom is married and has four daughters from 3 through 10 years old. He works out of the Hamburg, NY garage. As I'm walking 17 miles you guys are asking me why I'm walking? I'm walking because Verizon's corporate greed is something that we need to stop. I need to support my family and I need to get involved to do that. If a handful of people get together and walk and protest, others will join in and continue. The more pressure we can put on corporations to give back to the people who built them, the more wrongs we can solve in this country. |