Working Fer The Man

Union jobs with Living Wage for All

Verizon workers in the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) and CWA (Communication Workers of America) rallied for good union jobs on Saturday July 30. They demand that the profitable and highly subsidized telcom company stop trying to take workers’ conditions back to the 19th century.

Workers rally for good union jobs

More than 12,000 strong took to the streets in the roasting midday sun – in the belly of the beast outside the Verizon central office on 140 West Street in the NYC’s financial district — to build momentum and mobilize for a possible strike on August 7.

Despite Verizon’s enormous profits, they are seeking draconian changes in the unions’ current contracts, changes that would destroy everything the working class has fought for and won over the last 75 years. The CWA Website sums the situation up well.

Despite being one of the most profitable companies in the U.S., (Verizon earned $19.5 billion in profits over the last four years and paid its top five executives over $258 million in the same time frame), Verizon is demanding major concessions across the board in workers’ health care, benefits, pensions and more. Instead of creating and keeping good jobs in local communities, Verizon has been contracting out work out of the region and offshoring jobs to Mexico, the Philippines and other countries. Verizon also got a $1.3 billion federal tax rebate from the government despite its huge profits.

As union rallies go, it was your standard stuff, lots of speeches from union leaders — some inspiring, others less so.   The crowd of rank-and-file stalwarts were riled up and ready to open up a big ol’ can of whoop ass on the Verizon bosses. Company bosses and the other sociopaths who run most corporations and investment banks in the world need to have their asses kicked and only the working class can do it.  Any volunteers?

I bet he'll volunteer

In his closing speech, CWA District 1 VP Chris Shelton got down to some nitty gritty when he called for a broad movement of workers who were ready to fight the bosses, not just around narrow union contract issues – although these are important – but also over the relentless attacks that have steamrolled workers over the last 30 years in the US: health care costs, the housing bubble, the price of college education, offshoring and most of all unemployment and underemployment – particularly in Black and Latin communities.  These of course are just a few.

Can we win? “You betcha,” but we’ll need to fight as brave and bold as the Red Army at Stalingrad.