America’s front-runner in telecommunications was left high and dry by an arsenal of its employees yesterday. About 45,000 workers from Verizon Communications landline telephone, Internet, and television divisions vacated the Verizon camp in a united laborer’s fury after, as the striker’s claim, Verizon failed to produce a a fair contract that would benefit both the company and its staff.
The vehement Verizon employees constitute East Coast factions of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Communications Workers of America of American labor unions. Despite the strength in numbers that’s fueling the strike, head honchos from the phone provider promise customers that the quality and efficiency of their service will not be disrupted. They say the strike can’t shake the customer service because the employee’s eruption was –expected.
Phil Santrolo informed the Boston Globe that, “Verizon was prepared for the staffers’ march-out, and had already trained tens of thousands of other employees to perform customer service, service installations, repairs and other duties performed by union workers.” Due to their profound foresight and preparedness, Santrolo seems sure that the company is competent and can stay afloat, “We are confident that we can continue to run this business.”
The union’s uproar comes from a place of dissatisfaction with Verizon’s inadequate and nearly offensive negotiations; according to CWA spokesman Bob Masters, the negotiations were “the worst we’ve ever seen in 50 years.” Masters says Verizon demands rollbacks of wages, benefits and union rules. In Verizon’s defense, while its wireless realm rakes in extreme wealth and is the top U.S. wireless carrier, its less successful landline division has fallen from 63 million customers in 2000 to 26 million last year.
As of yesterday, all landline operations were still up and running and managers were filling the voids created by absent employees. Whether Verizon was aiming to ‘drive down the standards of middle class members’ as Master’s accused, or whether they’re simply looking to financially restore in domains that are drowning, they’re going to have significantly fewer hands to do so amidst their worker’s wreckless abandonment.