Verizon's CWA, IBEW Workers Plan To Strike Wednesday
About 40,000 Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) members in eight states and the District of Columbia plan to go on strike against Verizon starting at 6 a.m. Wednesday, they said. Major strikes have…
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become a rarity, with only 12 strikes involving 1,000 or more employees last year, compared with 22 a decade earlier and hundreds annually being common before the 1980s, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. "We have tried everything, and I do mean everything," CWA President Chris Shelton said on a conference call with journalists Monday. "Verizon has forced us there. They have no regard for anybody but themselves." IBEW President Lonnie Stephenson said the union has proposed alternatives to the company's proposed health and retirement benefit changes, but Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam "has refused anything less than his full agenda of cuts." Union officials tied many of their complaints to Verizon's failure to build out its Fios network. "It's greed, just greed, plain and simple," said Ed Mooney, CWA District 2-13 vice president. The union has in the past pointed to Fios plans as an example of the company not living up to obligations (see 1601220013). Verizon has been preparing for more than a year in the event of a strike, with nonunion workers trained to handle job duties from repairs on poles to handling call center inquiries, it said in a statement Monday. “We’ve tried to work with union leaders to reach a deal,” Chief Administrative Officer Marc Reed said. “Verizon has been moving the bargaining process forward, but now union leaders would rather make strike threats than constructively engage at the bargaining table.” Verizon said the company's contract proposal includes a 6.5 percent wage increase over the life of the contract and a 401(k) with company match, along with "structural changes" to its legacy healthcare plans that would bring them in line with what it offers its non-union U.S. workforce. The current contract expired Aug. 1, according to the unions.