R.I. Verizon workers strike

VERIZON WORKERS were protesting Wednesday morning at 155 Westminster St. outside of a Verizon call center in Providence. / PBN PHOTO/ELI SHERMAN
VERIZON WORKERS were protesting Wednesday morning at 155 Westminster St. outside of a Verizon call center in Providence. / PBN PHOTO/ELI SHERMAN

PROVIDENCE – More than 500 Rhode Island Verizon workers on Wednesday went on strike after the telecommunications giant and union leadership failed to reach contract agreements.
About 39,000 Verizon employees nationwide went on strike and approximately 50 were protesting at 9:30 a.m. at 155 Westminster St. outside of a Verizon call center in Providence. Local IBEW 99, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Providence, say they have been working without a contract since Aug. 1. Members said they refuse to work until Verizon offers job security, health benefits and remove a new provision that would allow the company to temporary relocate workers to another location within its footprint for up to 90 days.
Cranston Local 2323 member Justin Draper said this type of time away from his home would be “devastating.
“If Verizon tried to send me away for weeks or even months at a time, I’d have to look for another job” said the single father of two. “Being away from my kids just simply isn’t an option for my family.”
Members of the Communications Workers of America are also on strike and picketing hundreds of offices and equipment facilities throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
Of the workers on strike nationwide, about 29,000 are represented by the CWA, 10,000 by the IBEW, according Candice Johnson, a spokeswoman for the CWA.
“No one wants to go on strike,” said IBEW International President Lonnie R. Stephenson, in a statement. “But Verizon – this immensely profitable company – is putting the squeeze on hard-working men and women who just want to come to work, do their jobs and be treated fairly.”
Verizon says the company has tried to reach agreements with the wirelines associates and has proposed wage increases, continued retirement benefits and health care benefits. But “union members decided to call a strike rather than sit down and work on the issues that need to be resolved,” according to a company release.
“It’s regrettable that union leaders have called a strike, a move that hurts all of our employees,” said Marc Reed, Verizon’s chief administrative officer, in a prepared statement. “Since last June, we’ve worked diligently to try and reach agreements that would be good for our employees, good for our customers and make the wireline business more successful now and in the future. Unfortunately, union leaders have their own agenda rooted in the past and are ignoring today’s digital realities. Calling a strike benefits no one, and brings us no closer to resolution.”
The company has prepared for the strike, training thousands of non-union employees to fill-in, according to Verizon. The company has also reassigned employees from different parts of the country to cover duties, including customer inquiries, plant management and network maintenance and repair.
The labor dispute is the first since Verizon took full control of Verizon Wireless and agreed to buy AOL, two deals worth almost $135 billion that point toward a wireless-centric future. The company has been shedding union-heavy operations, including its FiOS business in three states earlier this month. Last year, landlines accounted for 29 percent of Verizon’s revenue, down from almost 50 percent in 2008. And as its strategy has shifted, the ranks of union workers have shrunken by about half from 78,000 13 years ago.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.

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