sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General Telecom News Verizon's workers go on strike on East Coast

2011 re-visited...in many ways...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/14/business/verizon-workers-strike.html?_r=0

Everyday out they lose money they won't recover.

You beat them when they are paying you, not when you save them money.

I'm not trying to be a smart-alec with this comment... Has anyone noticed they're on strike? Down here we seldom see a SMB customer with service from the ILEC, unless that is all that is available. Most everyone has switched to the cable companies.

This stoppage is fairly new so none of our services have been lost. The worry of service being impacted due to the sabotage/vandalism that is all too common during strikes is in the back of my mind though.

We never went on strike in IBEW land, but the CWA portion of our telco did. Yeah, the clowns did a lot of vandalism. I don't remember too much about it, we just went about our business and I don't recall that we were sent into the CWA offices during the strike.

In the end, I think they lost more in a week than they gained over the 3 years of the contract and it became crystal clear the these offices were fully automated. Besides, they got to suspend all PUCO complaints so customer service was a non-issue.

Did I mention I'm not fond of unions?

Carl

Let's not make this a for or against unions thread, just follow the rules for posting in this forum. Keep it to the subject at hand. Read the article posted, money is not the reason for the strike and they bargained with the company for over 10 months before resorting to strike. It's bad for all involved when it comes down to striking.

I agree on hardly noticing. We have very few businesses that still use Verizon. Some use their FIOS internet and one of the tiny local CLEC's delivers their service over FIOS but that is about it.

Someone asked me if I was expecting more calls with Verizon on strike. I thought about it for a second and the answer is no. Time Warner is cleaning up around here and has been for a while.

The impact here is noticeable. We are installing voice and data lines in a new store in a mall. The Verizon tech that installed the drop said "everything's fine." I checked the two data T-1 circuits. One works. The 4 voice lines are dead.

In tracing the feed cables, I discovered the cable carrying the voice lines doesn't go anywhere.

I spoke to the mall manager and told him I will install a new feed cable. He said that the mall management had received 4 calls about cut cables and plugs pulled out of smart jacks.

Several of our customers that were expecting new service did not even get a call from Verizon that there may be a delay. The cut date came and went with no service.

Here, in western PA, the union screwed the membership, royally, back in the early 70s by demanding that all poles 40' and over would have to be installed, during a night emergency, by a contractor. Bell Telephone employees would not be putting themselves at risk at night. The strike lasted 6 months. Bell Telephone finally caved and agreed. The strike ended. Bell Telephone discovered, much to the dismay of the union, that it was cheaper for Bell Telephone to contract out emergency pole replacement than to have their own employees do it.

Over the years, more and more Outside plant work was contracted out. Then the same thing happened in the new CO installs. It now has come to the point where the union is trying to fight losing more work to contractors.

I'm not condemning the unions. I was a union steward for several years, however, I think this is a real case of shooting yourself in the foot to resolve a problem with walking. Once the union gave away those jobs, the company has been hard at work figuring out how to take more away and contract it out.

My heart goes out to the people on strike. I know what that is. I pray for a speedy resolution.

Rcaman

I haven't noticed much of a change here in the DC market. I guess we'll know on Monday when my meeting with a Verizon engineer is supposed to happen for a chronic problem at noon.

I've been working in the Virginia Beach market for several months now and I've noticed that Cox Communications has all but stolen that region away from Verizon. I can honestly say that I have not encountered a single site where Cox wasn't the service provider except for occasional POTS lines for elevators, alarms, etc. I guess they reap what they sow.

I saw for the second time yesterday where a fairly new office building didn't have any Verizon cable facilities installed at all. Only Cox fiber and COAX. I've never seen that before where the ILEC didn't at least have some point of presence in every building in town. Times are-a-changing.

With that said, these people out on strike need to be careful. It's becoming painfully obvious that Verizon is losing their footing in many major markets to the point where people are expendable (or at least easily-replaced). FiOS is their new thing and it surely isn't rocket science. It's glorified cable TV and we all know how that industry operates.