atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General Telecom News 45,000 Verizon employees on strike

Ed,

I was only speaking for myself, and honestly understand your point of view very well...however...

The only reason I stuck with this job were medical and pension benefits. If that is to be taken away, I'm out. My family will have to go through the stress of moving five states away and everything else I had intended to avoid all along which will be no fun, but I won't miss the telecom industry at all...not for one split second.

I'm perfectly aware that vast majority of my fellow employees will not have this option. My prayers will be with them.

Apologies for the typo...I'm usually more careful.

"If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool."
— Abraham Lincoln

Ed,

Like ajkula66, I understand your point of view, and would prefer going to work tomorrow over sitting home, but where does it end? At some point someone has to make a stand or there will be no middle class left. Just the rich and those that are on welfare or struggling to make ends meet.

I'm as pro-business as they come, but when a company can pay someone $55,000 a day 365 days a year (if he is worth it, good for him!), and just last week announced 10 billion in dividend payouts, only to turn around and demand union employees take what amounts to a $20,000 pay cut on an average salary, that is the best example of greed I've seen in a while.

How it will all play out, nobody knows, but like ajkula66, I probably wont stick around to find out.

In Toledo, OH, the union scale is about $35/hr with the employee netting about $23 on the check and the rest going into health and pension. I think Verizon holdings before they exited OH was somewhat less, perhaps with top craft wages just under $20. From what I read, it looks like Vz is trying to rein in the hourly rate to $30. I'd take those wages with partial health and pension contributions....but that's just me.
Now, I get a few $$$ more, but I get to pay 100% of H&W and the liability insurance, etc. etc. etc.

At the end of the day, the strike will lose and you'll still take what they give you. It's tough to bring an automated operating telco to its knees, especially when they're in decline.
The net result is that they will simply clean house.

Carl

I guess unions strike for their own reasons,but in this declining ecocomy the CWA is putting their members and families thru a hardship and they certainly are not negotiating from a power position.

I can not see how you make up for all those lost wages.

It will take years to break even.

I would think the cable companies would be smiling.

I’m pretty surprised that things actually got to the point of striking. In the old days there was no place for customers to go for service. All that started changing some years ago. Now there are any number of other companies that are willing and able to provide those services.

I think both sides know this. In 2004 the unions continued working without a strike. There was a strike with the contract prior to that but it was very short, 2 or 3 days.

I think striking in today’s environment is a really drastic action and a really bad sign. There must be some serious differences. I hope things get resolved quickly. I have friends on both sides of the picket line. None of them wanted this.

Every day of the strike, Verizon saves money that the union members will never make up. As so many of us have Verizon in our 401k's and other mutual funds, I guess we should support the union and hope for a long strike.
Of course this is at the expense of the union striking members.
As a life member of CWA I know from experence the big losers are the, we, union members.

ajkula66:

I was busting your chops. Seriously though, this whole issue is a losing matter for both sides. I truly hope that you guys are spared from enduring a long strike and that all parties are able to reach a speedy settlement. It would be in the best interest of everyone. Best wishes.

Bill, the Lincoln quote may be apocryphal. it appears to be a popular one but rather hard to confirm. This page came up for me on a search. It is page 77 and continues to the next page. I was curious if the subject "labor" applied to an organized group or if it applied to labor as an activity. You know, as in "If a man will not work, neither let him eat."

here

...sorry to digress from the main topic.

All I can tell you Dave is it's been around as long as I can remember. However a search of the Internet can't confirm Lincoln actually said it. So chalk it up to the memories of an old union man. :shrug: