Verizon, CWA Fight Over FiOS Rollout, Collective Bargaining Issues
The Communications Workers of America launched ads slamming Verizon’s alleged failure to develop FiOS broadband. The ads were released after rallies Saturday to reject Verizon’s demands to eliminate job security, slash pensions and increase healthcare costs, said CWA. To counter the negative press about the FiOS rollout and contract negotiations, Verizon has been running ads touting the company as a great place to work. A Verizon spokesman said union leaders are “flat-out wrong” in their criticism of the FiOS rollout.
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Ten years ago, when Verizon started building out FiOS, it pledged to pass 18 million households and invest $23 billion in the project, the spokesman said. Since, the company said it has passed 20 million homes and businesses. “Over the past 5 weeks, we’ve seen lots of inaccurate information and empty rhetoric come out of the union PR machine,” the spokesman said. “This is just one more example.”
CWA’s 30-second ads began running Wednesday across New York City/New Jersey, Upstate New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, the organization said. The ads followed an announcement that 86 percent of Verizon workers voted to authorize a strike if necessary, CWA said. The workers’ labor contract expires at midnight Saturday and covers 39,000 CWA and IBEW represented telephone workers from Massachusetts to Virginia, the organization said. Bob Masters, CWA District One legislative and political director, said the ads aim to let the public know about the union's battle with Verizon. “We're in a big fight with Verizon and we want the public to understand that the crucial element in this fight is that we believe Verizon is failing to meet its obligations to consumers to provide high-quality service to bring them state-of-the-art broadband,” he said. "Our members make a living maintaining the existing network and installing and maintaining FiOS and to the extent that the company has abandoned those things means fewer jobs for us. So what we want the public to understand is that they actually have a stake in this fight."
Verizon said the ads are being used as a distraction from the real issues, the spokesman said. “These ads are nothing more than a shallow, half-baked attempt by union leaders to distract attention from the real issues that need to be resolved,” he said. Master said it’s not productive to engage in name calling, but the behavior is “reflective” of how Verizon acts at the bargaining table, which is to refuse to “bargain seriously about a fair contract.”
Since June 22, Verizon has made “serious and consistent efforts” to reach an agreement that is fair to all sides and will help keep the company’s landline unit on a path toward success, the spokesman said. The union leaders have a different agenda, that does not “seem to be in the best interest of our employees and we certainly hope that changes,” he said.
Verizon wants CWA to agree to eliminate long-standing job security protections including protections against layoffs and forced transfers, slash retirement security, increase healthcare cost contributions, remove the union's right to negotiate over retiree health care, increase ability to contract out of work, eliminate cost-of-living raises and eliminate accident disability plan for workers injured on the job, said Master. While such cuts are unfavorable, they would make more sense that a company where the CEO did not make $18 million last year, Master said. Despite the current tension, “we believe we can bargain constructively to reach a contract that meets the interests of both sides,” Master said. “But we have a huge priority in terms of preserving jobs and job securities -- that is a key issue in this fight much more than anything else.”