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Dark Horizon for Verizon
It was only a matter of time before the "pull down" NAFTA and WTO trade agreements on U.S. wages and jobs would be followed by "pull down" contract demands by U.S. corporations on their unionized workers toward levels of non-unionized laborers.
The most recent illustration of this three-decade reversal of nearly a century of American economic advances for employees is the numerous demands by Verizon.
Here are just a few of the concessions the new Verizon CEO, Lowell McAdam, is insisting upon:
- More power to contract out and offshore jobs to add to the 25,000 already in that category; thereby undermining job security.
- a freeze on pensions;
- elimination of the sickness and death benefit program;
- reduction in sick days; and
- a major increase in employee contributions to and deductibles under their health insurance coverage.
Mr. Lowell McAdam would surely have trouble feeling the pain of his workers who brave the elements storm or shine to afford him a salary of over 1.5 million dollars PER MONTH plus perks and benefits.
Watching Verizon profits soar year after year, noticing Verizon stock rise faster than its competitors, knowing that the company's top five executives took in over $250 million between them in the last four years, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) took their members on strike on August 7, 2011. "Unfair and unacceptable" was their cry on the picket lines up and down the east coast.
These workers pay their taxes. While the tax lawyers for their bosses have figured out how to turn Verizon into a vast tax escapee. According to the super-accurate Citizens for Tax Justice, Verizon Communications made a total of $32.5 billion dollars in pretax U.S. profits during 2008, 2009, 2010. Far from paying the maximum federal corporate income tax rate of 35 percent on these ample profits, Verizon's federal income tax was negative $951 million or negative 2.9 percent!
Some of these saved tax revenues have been getting into expensive daily full page advertisements (not deductible it is hoped) in the Washington Post, The New York Times, and other large newspapers. Verizon's brazen assertions reflect the limitless arrogance of a multinational behemoth.
Verizon's headlines its ad with these words:
"They claim we're asking union-represented employees to contribute to their own health care premiums. THEY'RE RIGHT. Verizon is proposing that its union-represented employees contribute more toward the cost of rising health care. 135,000 non-union Verizon employees already pay a portion of the healthcare premium. We're just asking our union -represented employees to chip in like everybody else. We think that's fair."
There you have it - the "pull down" ultimatum to the level of the voiceless majority of Verizon workers. Of course Verizon bosses with their fat paychecks do not have to worry at all about co-payments and larger deductibles in their gold-plated health plan.
Another anti-union Verizon ad featured this assertion:
"They claim we want to strip away 50 years of contract negotiations. THEY'RE RIGHT. The union contracts that have expired were drafted over 50 years ago, when people still used rotary phones. Verizon is proposing to update the contracts in a reasonable manner to reflect the changing times."
The CWA leaders recognize that some changes need to be made and have offered compromises. But fifty years ago, a telephone company CEO never dared pay himself anywhere near the multiple that today's Verizon executives get compared to the average workers. Maybe then the CEO would get 20 times the entry level wage. Now it is between two hundred to four hundred times.
Verizon does have one last argument. At the bottom of each full-page ad, it describes exacting concessions from its workers as "all in an effort to best position Verizon to serve our customers." Are those the same customers who are subject to all kinds of extremely one-sided fine print that spells suppression of rights, overcharges, termination fees, penalties and other straitjackets of contract serfdom? Are those the same customers who have to wait and wait to get their service and billing complaints addressed and questions answered? Are those the same customers who can never get Verizon to put what its spokespersons say on the phone in writing?
The CWA workers went back to their jobs on August 22, 2011. Verizon had threatened to cut off their medical, dental and optical benefits by August 31. Their 2008 contract continues until ongoing negotiations with the company are concluded for a new contract.
Verizon keeps saying that what they're doing just "reflects the changing times." The times are changing - skyrocketing executive pay packages and corporate profits - slashing benefits for the workers and their families - shredding of all moral authority by example from the top.
If negotiations break down in the coming weeks and the CWA goes out on strike again, consumer advocates and their organizations should make it explicitly clear that Verizon can't excuse what they're doing to workers in order to better "serve our customers."
Verizon is going increasingly wireless. They are also going increasingly shameless!
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32 Comments so far
Show AllIf you're still a Verizon customer, you know what to do when contract renewal time comes 'round...
Meanwhile, pay that monthly later and later and later ...
Yup. It's pretty simple - just boycott the bad guys. Why aren't ALL unions distributing boycott lists and the associated 'better alternatives?'
We the People only have a few weapons, and boycotts are effective. We can choose to anonymously boycott the "worst of the worst."
The bad guys are "anonymous." (e.g., corporations of US Chamber of Commerce, ALEC). It's a good defense. So, we can play that game - each of us anonymously prepare & distribute boycott lists, and anonymously choose alternative products and services.
Boycott List
Verizon, AT&T, msm, Disney, Bank of America, Citi, Chase, M&I, Wells Fargo, Shell, Exxon/Mobil, BP, Texaco, Monsanto, Georgia Pacific (wood products, densglas, quilted northern, angel soft, brawney, dixie, sparkle mardi gras), GE, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Sara Lee, Johnsonville, Cracker Barrel, NewsCorp/Fox, Target, Motorola, Estee Lauder, Starbucks, [add more here].
See also
http://www.topplebush.com/boycott_rush.shtml
http://foxnewsboycott.com/fox-news-sponsors/
Obama's super catfood commission's dirty work will include "tax reform" (in Obamaspeak "tax reform" means reducing coporate taxes) that will reduce Verizon's and other corporations' already negative 2.9% tax rate to an even lower, more negative rate that will require the super catfood commision to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits to fund.
Credo is one option: http://www.credomobile.com/mission/Progressive-Social-Change.aspx
Virgin is another option.
I get petition after petition from CREDO, comment and sign without hesitation. CREDO is a wonderful organization. Don,t forget Move-On with 6 million members. I wish all the non-profit advocacy groups could unite, work together . and do something about Citizens United v. FEC, the Kochs, and the corporations. To do this YOU MUST UNITE. I'm sorry to say petitions are great but their not going to win the war.
Here in West Virginia Verizon sold off its wired telephone system to Frontier communications (which is what I expect they would like to do through their whole system). The former Verizon unionized workers are paid more than Frontier pays its people, so the pressure is on here to pull the former Verizon people down to Frontier's scale.
Also here in WV, the Kroger supermarket chain - very popular and profitable - is negotiating a new contract with the UFCW union. Reportedly the offer is a three year contract with no raises, and a complete shift of insurance cost (currently $4.50/week for a single worker) from the company to the employees. The strike deadline is August 28 unless it is extended.
There must be some overdue "corrective" actions coming from Anonymous. Maybe they and/or the Yes Men can parody those ads with replacements. Maybe citizen groups will do some satirical street theater skits and other actions to protest Verizon.
Voted for Ralph twice. We need to get other Progressives, Sanders, Franken, Kucinich, Feingold, and the members of the Progressive Caucus in congress together in the Green Party and make it a new, national 3rd party! This country cannot stand 1 more year, let alone 4 or more of the 2 party corporate system that runs this country. We need a united front to stand up to these crooks who are ruining this country.
Perhaps it should be a radical wing under the democratic umbrella (like the Tea Bag party is to the GOP) so that we don't just end up voting for the GOP (by not voting democrat).
Of course the idea of a Boycott may actually catch. It has to be BIG AND RADICAL like not spending a penny on Christmas. That would devastate the entire economy. I would love to vote for a Kucinich or a Nader, but the GOP is so much more evil that I could never waste my vote. I think a third party may have a better chance this year though.
Boycotts are wonderful, and have been a part of my life for nearly 25 years. If you don't like a particular corporation, don't give them money (and power).
I'm not fond of symbolic, one-day boycotts such as Adbusters "Buy Nothing Day" held every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It's more important to boycott consistently and long-term, as in no BP, Koch brothers' products, or Wal-Mart. EVER.
However. . .until you (and others like you) realize that the Democratic party is only SLIGHTLY less (not "so much more") evil than the Republican party, YOU are interfering with progress. The only real, obvious difference between the Ds and Rs now is that Obama and his playmates are not overt proponents of a regressive theocratic state a la Michele Bachmann. When it comes to secular civil-liberties abuses and corporate whoredom, they're equally bad.
The only vote you can control is your own. If all the people who wanted to vote for Nader or another third-party candidate actually did, some change might be possible. It won't happen overnight, but we have to begin somewhere or risk losing everything.
Though I don't agree with him on everything, I voted for Nader in 2000, 2004, and 2008. If he runs again in 2012, I will vote for him again. Even if he doesn't, I won't vote for Uncle Barack.
Boycotts are very good; even more important is supporting the good & righteous businesses and organizations. If we want to create a better world, we have to consciously invest (materially, emotionally, time & energy etc.) in the stuff we care about so that the good stuff can thrive.
*Comment deleted by site administrators for using all capital letters*
see: http://www.commondreams.org/comment-policy
It hit the news today. The union leadership has sold the members out and the strike is over. Once again, American workers lose. DUMP your Verizon phone and go to one of the low-cost leaders like Virgin or another. Lower prices and equal service. DUMP VERIZON.
"The union leadership has sold the members out and the strike is over."
In this piece Nader doesn't use the phrase "sold out"--he uses the word "compromise." As in:
"The CWA leaders recognize that some changes need to be made and have offered compromises."
As for "the strike is over" instead what Nader says in this piece:
"If negotiations break down in the coming weeks and the CWA goes out on strike again, consumer advocates and their organizations should make it explicitly clear that Verizon can't excuse what they're doing to workers in order to better "serve our customers."
As if the fundamental problem all along has been a lack of explicitness and clarity.
What Nader doesn't even mention in this piece is how the unions shut the strike down.
Nader doesn't get too explicit with THAT part of the story.
And the reason for that is, Nader is not on the side of workers any more than the unions are on the side of workers.
Nader is part of a fake left that directs attention to consumer boycotts etc. in order to misdirect attention away from the actual role of the unions and the rest of the fake left.
It's Nader who's shameless.
And what good have we done today?
"And what good have we done today?"
The question is what role have the unions and the fake left been playing to sabotage workers for the last 30 years since PATCO.
No, the question posed to you is the correct one, especially as you diminish those who are on the front lines from the comfort of your computer chair.
I do not seek to diminish the flaws and foibles of many of our unions leadership, and, as an active member of IBEW I have first hand knowledge thereof. However, your snide and unsubstantiated comments re: "fake left" and your diminshment of unions sans attribution or explanation reeks, frankly.
"...your diminshment of unions sans attribution or explanation reeks, frankly."
Who ended the PATCO strike 30 years ago?
Who ended the protests in Wisconsin?
Who ended the Verizon strike?
And who, for the last 30 plus years has been covering it up?
That's what reeks, frankly. And for too long. It's time someone airs it out.
You must gain the maturity to recognize you enemies. Save your criticisms for the leadership and not the rank and file. In the cases you present the word "compromises" comes to mind immediately. Negotiations do not always lead to workers getting all they need. That there have been some egregious seeming results for negotiations is a moot point obviously. That the struggle continues in ways you cannot see is something you seem unaware of, frankly. My union, in its last contract negotiation, settled for certain bitter pills but immediately began to plan to resolve them in the next battle
. Are you yourself a member of any union? Are you a student of the history of the labor movement? Your broad brush approach indicates a certain immaturity and inexperience, sorry to note. Further, your list includes an ongoing battle in Wisconsin, where do you see an end when I see a middle?
I do not mean to insult, but your posts seem to indicate that you are rather young and inexperienced. I only respond to ask you how do you seek to win a battle when you are so free to alienate potential allies? Will you do it alone? Are you aware of the current trending in this nation away from the working class needs and towards both fascism and third world status? Are you completely in the dark as to the differences between what is being done and what is being reported?
I read you comment further down this thread and applaud what you said therein. Yet I stand by what I believe to be flaws in your strategies thus leave the original post intact.
The "maturity" and "strategy" arguments are becoming increasingly frequent these days.
Ironically, these arguments were effectively utilized by the unions--along with "personal responsibility" and "sacrifice"--to pass Obama's healthcare "reform"--legislation that's now being used against Verizon workers:
"The AFL-CIO, the IBEW, and the CWA have remained silent on their role in supporting the very legislation that is now being used against the workers they nominally represent. When Obama put forward the proposal for special taxes on quality employee health care plans, the unions raised only nominal objections while making clear that they would not allow this to stand in the way of their enthusiastic backing for the law as a whole."
If you recall, this was the new tax on "Cadillac" plans:
"The element of the health care law in question, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), imposes a staggering 40 percent tax on plans with an annual cost exceeding $10,200 for individuals or $27,500 for a family, beginning in 2018. Reportedly all of the workers who struck at Verizon this month would fall under the new tax levy. These workers currently pay no health care premiums. Verizon is demanding that they contribute $1,200 to $3,000 per year, part of the $20,000 per worker pay and benefits cuts the corporation is demanding.
The relationship of the Obama health care law to the Verizon strike has been raised by a few “left” friends of the Democratic Party and the unions. One blogger for In These Times presents the imposition of the “Cadillac” tax on Verizon workers as if it were some sort of mistake."
-ISO covers for unions’ betrayal of Verizon strike
You also mentioned "compromise."
Here's the thing. When it comes to the relationship between workers and today's ruling elite, "compromise" is no longer an option. At this point, to believe that compromise is still an option is delusional.
And the shameless propagation, care-for and maintenance of that delusion is no "mistake"--it has been the pivotal role of the unions and the rest of fake left for the past 30 plus years.
Yet , while demeaning the use of compromise and strategy, you offer nothing of any value in finding solutions. Bitter carping doesnt work, in fact it might be seen as a stumbling block to progress.
Was this your actual intent?
Shortly after Lincoln was elected he was placed under enormous pressure to offer the South a compromise in conciliation of his election.
Lincoln rightly refused explaining that at this point, the only compromise the South would accept (in fact, they expected it) was a compromise on principle.
Today's ruling elite expect the same sort of compromise (they in fact have no choice) and nothing less will suffice.
The time for strategy, compromise and negotiation has passed. The ruling elite are not doing negotiation--they are dictating.
What you are doing is holding out false hope and the ignorant bliss of delusion.
What you are confusing is "bitterness" with an accurate assessment of reality.
Yet once again, this is what "strategy" and "compromise" with the ruling elite have come to:
"CWA President Larry Cohen pointed to the likely line that the union will take in justifying a concessions contract when he said on Thursday, “We have a strategy; our strategy is jobs. Their strategy is health care and cost structure.” In other words, an agreement sacrificing worker benefits will be sold as a victory if it contains provisions supposedly preserving jobs. This is a line used repeatedly by unions to justify their betrayals. In the end, the job security guarantees prove entirely fictitious
-Unions preparing to agree to concessions at Verizon
It's only been 30 plus years of this.
Again, no solution only acrimony. You are knowledgeable yet extremely unhelpful for all that knowlege. My sympathies will always lie with those who work to effect change and less so with those who offer nothing but that which separates us.
For all your knowledge you offer no alternative.Useless acumulation of facts with no conclusions. Thus I stand with those who continue to work, including the unions you besmirch so unthinkingly. Union leadership is not the union itself. The hard working brotherhood, the rank and file, that is what union means to me. It is from those folks that a solution will come, not from 'useless nabobs of negativity' like you.
Multiple posts containing not one hint of a solution seems such a waste of time, unless your purpose IS devisiveness.
"Maybe then the CEO would get 20 times the entry level wage. Now it is between two hundred to four hundred times."
Like Lloyd Blankfein & Co., todays CEOs actually believe they are God-like and "doing God's work".
"Mr. Lowell McAdam would surely have trouble feeling the pain of his workers who brave the elements storm or shine to afford him a salary of over 1.5 million dollars PER MONTH plus perks and benefits." Trickle up, trickle up, trickle up economics... seems to work for some.
I'm afraid this is the wave of the future and American workers aren't willing to do anything about it. When did we become so docile? We don't all have to go to Washington. We can start big demonstrations right where we live. I'm pushing 70 and did my share of community organizing years ago, and I'm too tired and unenthusiastic to get anything started. All I do is write opinions and letters, but where are all the younger people. People in their twenties are really getting the shaft, but it doesn't appear to bother them. If it did, we would hear more from them.
"I'm afraid this is the wave of the future and American workers aren't willing to do anything about it."
Bullshit.
Instead of pointing the finger of blame at union officials, where it belongs, the pivotal role of the fake left is to muddle the issue and misdirect attention to anywhere and everywhere except where it belongs.
Such as blaming workers.
The gall.
Especially when you consider the insidious role union officials--with complete cover from the fake left--have been playing to sabotage workers in Wisconsin and with Verizon, to name just two recent examples.
Not only do the unions shut down the protests and strikes as in the case with Wisconsin and Verizon--they're not opposed to Wisconsin governor Walker's or Verizon's attacks on pensions, healthcare benefits and jobs in the first place.
In the case of Verizon, the CWA had already agreed to similar demands for workers at AT&T:
"Sustar acknowledges that the CWA did not call the strike to oppose the telecom giant’s attack on pensions, health care benefits and jobs, but merely to make the company “negotiate seriously.” In fact, as Sustar admits, the CWA had already agreed to similar demands at Verizon’s competitor, AT&T, forcing 100,000 workers to accept “an end to pensions for new hires in some regions and a requirement that workers pay a share of health insurance premiums for the first time.” Blithely setting this not insignificant fact aside, Sustar holds out the prospect that the unions will somehow turn around and fight."
-ISO covers for unions’ betrayal of Verizon strike
http://wsws.org/articles/2011/aug2011/sust-a23.shtml
In the case of Wisconsin:
"Far from opposing Walker’s cuts, the unions have written into the contracts the governor’s demand that workers double what they pay for health care premiums and cover half the cost of their pensions."
-Political lessons of the battle of Wisconsin
http://wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/pers-m23.shtml
As for the "will" of workers--it's been the unions who've been working steadfastly to break it:
In Wisconsin:
"The union also agreed that teachers with unexcused absences due to four days of protests last month will have their pay docked and those whose excuses are found not to be valid will be suspended."
-Madison teachers union agrees to deep concessions
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/madi-m14.shtml
And with Verizon:
"Revealing of its attitude to the workers as a whole, the CWA and IBEW leadership allowed Verizon to indiscriminately discipline workers for actions during the strike. According to CWA officials, they have been given a list of 80 such workers. But this is most likely an underestimation, and the number will grow."
-CWA and IBEW abandon workers victimized by Verizon
http://wsws.org/articles/2011/aug2011/veri-a24.shtml
It's fucking insidious. The unions and the fake-left act as if they're lending a hand to help up the worker--when all the while, the unions and the fake left have their foot lodged solidly on the worker's throat.
And they've been doing it for over 30 years.