Lowell McAdam | Be a Seed for Change

Photo credit: Unity@Verizon

The strike by some 45,000 Verizon workers, members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Electrical Workers (IBEW), continued into its third day today as workers across the country offer support to the strikers, whose struggle reflects the situation for millions of workers.

Rather than reward the hard work of Verizon employees who have provided the quality service that earned the company more than $32.5 billion in revenue over the past three years, management continues to insist on cuts that total $1 billion. These workers have played by the rules—and now Verizon wants to break them.

Verizon’s concession demands would strip away the standard of living workers have gained through bargaining over the past 50 years, workers say.

It is all too common for workers to face the prospect of losing benefits even though you have worked hard and valued your work, IBEW President Edwin Hill says:

This is a company with a $100 billion dividend. The top five company executives were paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars over the past four years. If a company like this is not willing to provide wages and benefits to enable its workers to be part of the mainstream middle class in America, then all who work for a living have reason to fear.

Click here to demand that Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam value employees’ work and share his corporation’s success with those who make it possible. Click here for a list of picket sites in the New York and New Jersey area.

You also can click here to sign and tweet an act.ly petition demanding Verizon drop its outrageous concessionary demands.

To tweet about the strike, use the hashtag #verizonstrike and feel free to direct to @VZLaborfacts.

The company also paid nothing (that’s ZERO) in corporate income taxes. In fact, it actually received nearly $1 billion in tax benefits from the federal government during that time, according to the Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ).

In fact, if Verizon had paid its corporate income tax at the official rate of 35 percent, it would have owed more than $11 billion, according to CTJ. This alone would have been enough to avoid the recent cuts in the debt deal to student loan programs.

Read updates on the strike at www.cwa-union.org/verizon.

Verizon made billions in profits in just the last four years — but right now, the telecom giant is demanding $1 billion from its own workers in pay and benefit cuts.

Worse, rather than negotiate fairly with their employees, Verizon representatives cut off all negotiations and are refusing to talk.

So more than 45,000 Verizon workers went on strike demanding that Verizon stop its attack on the middle class. If Verizon sees the public and its customers behind the striking workers, the company can be forced back into good faith negotiations.

Sign the Change.org petition by the Communications Workers of America asking Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam to restart negotiations and stop Verizon’s attack on the middle class.>> http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-verizon-stop-attacking-the-middle-class?

If $1 billion in cuts is hard to grasp, consider this: Verizon is demanding each of its employees forfeit $20,000 in wages and benefits every year.

Verizon’s executives aren’t forced into outrageous cuts with their workers. In the last four years, Verizon’s top five executives were paid more than a quarter-billion dollars.

While Verizon makes record profits, its workers shouldn’t be made to suffer. Let Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam know you stand with workers against the company’s refusal to bargain. Click here to add your name to the workers’ petition on Change.org:

www.change.org

Thanks for being a change-maker,

– Jess and the Change.org team