Do you want a path out of this recession? Then help the Verizon workers by joining a picket line at your local Verizon store. (Click to learn how.) Verizon has billions in profits. They pay their executives huge salaries. But they are asking their workers and even retirees to take cuts, so the workers are on strike. They just want what you want - a decent job with decent pay and maybe some benefits. So join them.
Path Out Of Recession
Larry Cohen, president of Communication Workers of America (CWA), said on a call today said, "If a company with profits like this, and paying their top executives more than $50,000 a day, can demand these kind of cuts from its workers, there literally will never be a path out of recession in this country."
Cohen also said,
"The collapse of the standard if living across the country, we need to convince people of the larger issues here. The economics lesson here ... the human rights issues here are enormous. We are attempting to picket every Verizon Wireless store in the country and this can be done by anyone carrying our sign. ...
Are people like us going to have any rights in this country, do we have any rights in this country, do we have anything to look forward to?"
Join Them
Last week I wrote, in Verizon's Workers Strike Back At Corporate Greed -- You Can Join Them!:
The reason you see so many cellphone stores and ads everywhere is because wireless is a very lucrative business. Wireless companies are pulling in billions and their executives are raking in the bucks. But they are also squeezing their workers, their customers and our government.
Right now Verizon is greedily trying to put the squeeze on its workers, cutting pensions, sick pay, health insurance, even disability for employees injured on the job. If this story sounds all too familiar, this part won't: Their workers are fighting back with a strike! And you can join them!
Verizon's demands include:
• Continued contracting out of work to low-wage contractors, which means more outsourcing of good jobs overseas.
• Eliminating disability benefits for workers injured while on the job.
• Elimination of all job security provisions.
• Eliminating paid sick days for new hires and limiting them to no more than five for any workers.
• Freezing pensions for current workers and eliminating them for future employees.
• Replacing the current high-quality health care plan with a high-deductible plan requiring up to $6,800 in additional costs.
The Is About You
This is about you because this is happening to everyone. These Verizon workers are putting everything on the line for you -- trying to do something about it. They going on strike to try to get your wages and pension and health care back, or keep those things from being taken away from you. Don't forget that when you hear the corporate propaganda from FOX News and the rest of the corporate media, telling you about "union thugs" and "union bosses." This is about you and if you are anywhere near a Verizon worker picket line you should go join them.
What You Can Do
Click here to learn ways that you can support the strike.
Easy: Click to Tell Verizon: Stop Attacking the Middle Class. From the petition:
Over the last four years, Verizon has made $19 billion in profits while paying its top five executives $250 million in compensation and bonuses .
With middle-class families already struggling, it's time for Verizon to share its success with the hardworking Americans who made it possible. This is not a time for corporate greed. It is time to do the right thing.
Verizon made dramatic concessionary demands to kick off bargaining and never moved. Now you are refusing to bargain with the CWA & the IBEW.
Socially: “Like” them on Facebook.
Techy: Download their iPhone app.
Have Fun, Meet People, Join A Local Picket Line
Much more fun: Join them! Click here for a map of local picket lines that you can join. I especially like this one: Adopt Verizon Wireless a store to picket and leaflet.
You can find more info here including signing up to receive updates.
