This morning, April 13, 2016, 36,000 Verizon workers, members of the Communications Workers of America, went on strike. It is the largest labor strike since 45,000 Verizon workers went on strike in 2011.
The workers represent Verizon landline, high-speed Internet, and television services in the Northeast. The union says that the strike will not end until Verizon ends its push to send jobs to Mexico and overseas, stops intimidating Verizon wireless workers, drops demands to cut retirement and benefits, protects job security, and ends the practice of making workers move away from their homes and families for months at a time.
Verizon claims that the workers are ignoring today's digital realities. The company's landline business is declining.
According to CNN, Verizon posted $8.9 billion in operating profits in its wireless business in 2015. The company's wireline business sales were up 9 percent in 2015. CWA reports that the company made $39 billion in profits over the last three years, and $1.8 billion in the first quarter of 2016. Meanwhile, Verizon has outsourced 5,000 jobs.
Nineteen Democratic Senators and Bernie Sanders have written to Verizon and urged the company to reach an agreement. You can join them by going to this link:
https://actionnetwork.org/
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