Verizon Unions Deliver For American Middle Class

The long Verizon strike has ended, and the unions won. This means that the American middle class won, too.

Verizon is an extremely profitable company. But even with massive, astonishing profits the company was demanding that its workers provide givebacks, allow employees to be separated from families for months at a time and on top of that allow the company to send more and more call center jobs out of the country. The workers are lucky enough to have unions to fight this - The Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). They voted to strike, it was a long, hard struggle, and in the end they won.

Here is a description of what Verizon's workers achieved for all of us, from the IBEW:

Under the terms of the proposed agreement, Verizon agreed that no additional jobs will be outsourced overseas, while increasing the number of calls routed to domestic call centers. This will result in the creation of 1,300 new call center jobs with 850 in the Mid-Atlantic region and 450 in the Northeast.

"This was the major issue for my members: protecting American jobs and keeping them here at home," said East Windsor, N.J., Local 827 Business Manager Robert Speer, who represents IBEW Verizon employees in New Jersey. "This agreement makes a lot of progress in reversing the outsourcing trend."

Verizon also agreed to drop its demand that technicians had to be available to travel outside their home areas for up to two months at a time.

"Our members aren't just Verizon employees, they're moms and dads as well," said Calvey. "We're glad that we're able to make sure our members are able to come home to their families every night."

Also included in the tentative four-year agreement are:

* Wage increases of 3 percent for the first year and 2.5 each year after

* No cap on pensions and three 1 percent increases over the life of the agreement

* Retaining competitive health benefits

* Strong job security language

Why We Need Labor Unions

This shows exactly why we need labor unions.

Verizon did not need to outsource call-center work overseas. Verizon didn't need to set up highly disruptive work schedules in which workers would be away from their families for weeks at a time. Verizon didn't need to put a cap on worker pensions. Verizon tried to get these things from their workers anyway, because they are wealthy and powerful. If this sounds like everything you see around all of us with giant corporations trying to snatch more and more away from all of us, just because they can use their enormous wealth and power to do that, you are getting the picture.

Verizon's workers stood up, banded together in unions, and forced the company back to the drawing board. The company had to come back with a proposal that worked for both the workers AND Verizon's bottom line. Verizon was hoping to increase its profits even more; but over time the lower-than-hoped-for could likely be overtaken by the increased productivity of a more loyal workforce. (Depending, of course, on whether management follows up with the right strategic decisions and investments.)

This is why all of us need unions. Otherwise we are alone, on our own up against the aggregated wealth and power of giant corporations. Alone we don't stand a chance. Verizon's proved that the American middle class can fight back - if they join unions.