Between Nov. 29 and Dec. 24
Join Us in Saying "Bah, Humbug!" to Union Busting at Verizon!

"Scrooge" Seidenberg

Just in time for Christmas, Verizon Wireless has illegally fired two more workers for union activity in New York and Pennsylvania.

Just as it has for the last 9 years (since it was Bell Atlantic Mobile), VZW has also threatened, harassed, and intimidated many other pro-union employees, according to the latest unfair labor practice complaints issued by the National Labor Relations Board.

Since Christmas 2003, more than 1,500 VZW workers who tried to organize a union in Orangeburg, NY, and Morristown, NJ, have lost their jobs in call center shut-downs. That's in addition to the union supporters laid off by VZW's in Woburn, Mass., in 2001. Their work has been moved to new, non-union centers in other areas.

Union supporters have also been fired in Maryland, and all across the country, Verizon tries to keep us from talking to wireless employees, holds captive audience meetings,

Activists took a break from the District 1 Leadership School at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., for some informational picketing outside a Verizon Wireless location.

and runs an anti-CWA website on the company intranet.

We need to inform many more customers about VZW's disgraceful record of union-busting. Thanks to its Scrooge-like behavior, VZW still has only 55 union members out of a nationwide labor-force of 40,000—all doing work that represents the future of our industry!

To send this important holiday message—and change "Scrooge" Seidenberg's future behavior —CWA and IBEW members are leafleting/caroling VZW stores with a message that will tell the story of consumer rip-offs and workers' rights violations.

We need you to be a part of this important, fun-filled, informational picketing and leafleting at VZW—during its peak sales period! Sign up now with your steward.

Dozens of CWA and IBEW locals have pledged to participate, including CWA Locals 2336 (Washington), 4050 (Detroit), 4202 (Chicago), 4371 (Marion, OH), 4671 (Sun Prairie, WI), 4773 (LaPorte, IN), 6171 (Dallas), 6222 (Houston), 6310 (St. Louis), 13000 (Penn.), 13500 (Penn.), plus those listed at right.  More to come! 

15 "Bah, Humbug" Demos Planned; More to Come!

Many locals are still finalizing their plans; we'll publish additional locations where you can join in the fun in the next issue, or contact your local for more information.

Mon., Nov. 29., 11:35 a.m.-12:25 Chesapeake, VA 1224 Greenbriar Parkway CWA Local 2202

Wed., Dec. 1, 10-11:30 a.m. (& Dec. 8, 15, 22) Richmond, VA 7320 Staples Mill Rd. CWA Local 2201

Thurs., Dec. 2, Noon-1 p.m. New York, NY 1095 Ave. of the Americas (VZW store at Verizon HQ) CWA Locals 1101 & 1105, joined by a recently fired VZW worker, Jobs with Justice, Billionaires for Bush, NY CLC

Thurs., Dec. 2, 11 a.m.-noon (& Dec. 9, 16, 23) Newport News, VA 12227 Jefferson Ave. CWA Local 2205

Fri., Dec. 3, 5 p.m. North Haven, CT 91 Washington Ave. CWA Local 1298

Mon. Dec. 6, 11:35 a.m.-12:25 Virginia Beach, VA 4001 Virginia Beach Blvd. CWA Local 2202

Sat., Dec. 11, Noon-1 p.m. Boston, MA 745 Boyleston St. CWA and IBEW Locals, joined by a recently fired VZW worker, Jobs with Justice, Amnesty International, and others from the "Workers' Rights Are Human Rights" conference

Mon., Dec. 13, 11:35 a.m.-12:25 Virginia Beach, VA 729 First Colonial Rd. CWA Local 2202

Mon., Dec. 20, 11:35 a.m.-12:25 Suffolk, VA 1459 North Main St. CWA Local 2202

NLRB Charges Verizon Wireless With Multiple Rights Violations

The National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against Verizon Wireless, stating that the termination of one worker, the discipline of two others, a company "no solicitation" policy, and its ban on discussing terms and conditions of employment are all violations of the National Labor Relations Act. A trial has been scheduled for January.

Recently, Thai Nyguen and Greg Neubauer, customer service representatives for Verizon Wireless in Bedminster, N.J., appeared in a CWA video. (Watch it online.)

Managers, Nyguen said, "look at you as if you're expendable. They don't see you as an asset to the company. They think they can take any moron off the street and train him to be a lackey, to do whatever they want, and that's it."

Neubauer described a grueling work schedule of handling call after call in three minutes, with no more than 15 seconds between calls, eight hours a day, then being told he has to work overtime. "I can barely do eight hours. Why would I want to do overtime?" he said. "Let me see a supervisor do this."

He went on to describe captive audience meetings with a lawyer and three managers present to remind employees, "We're all at-will workers here. You can be fired at any time for no reason."

The two service reps and others got into trouble when they started talking union in the workplace. Neubauer was disciplined three times. Steven Ferrante was also disciplined. In January 2004, Nguyen was fired. CWA filed unfair labor practice charges on their behalf.

The NLRB complaint determined that in August 2003, company managers established a rule prohibiting solicitation in work areas and on break time. It found that the rule was enforced "selectively and disparately by applying it only against employees engaged in union activities, and by prohibiting union solicitation while permitting non-union solicitation."

Through a second rule restricting discussion of terms and conditions of employment, the company was "discriminating in regard to the hire or tenure or terms or conditions of employment, thereby discouraging membership in a labor organization."

The complaint found both rules to be in violation of the NLRA and found the firing and discipline to have occurred because the workers "engaged in activities on behalf of the union and to discourage employees from engaging in such activities."

Buy Union – And $ave

Support the Wireless Company that Supports Workers’ Rights!

As your friends and family begin their holiday shopping, remind them that Cingular is the only union wireless company. And now that Cingular and AT&T Wireless have merged, it's got the biggest network in the country.

CWA members and retirees and their families get a 15% discount off Cingular service! 

Visit CWA's website for more information: www.cwa-union.org/cingular/discount.asp 
or call 877-751-7257.

(The discount is not available at Cingular stores or through Cingular's regular website or 800 number.  Current Cingular customers can also receive the discount.)

Discounts for other unions are available through Union Plus at  www.unionprivilege.com/cingular-wireless.cfm
or 800-356-9752.

(Make sure all your holiday shopping is union-made! Visit www.shopunionmade.org or www.unionplus.org )

North Central Contract Expires Jan. 29
CWA Members Across the Midwest Mobilize for Contract Negotiations

Over two thousand members across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin have been mobilizing since August in support of their bargaining committee. Talks will begin on December 8, 2004, for a new North Central Region contract. The current contract expires on January 29, 2005.

Locals began collecting email addresses and bargaining surveys from members in August. On October 13th, Locals held a Healthcare Action Day with worksite activities and information to members. Our slogan was: "Fighting for Healthcare Justice at Verizon."

On November 17th, locals held a "Jobs of the Future" action day. One of our key bargaining goals is to assure that the jobs of the future are union jobs. This means that new work should be done by CWA members, as well as that Verizon should assure that workers in non-union Verizon Wireless should have the same rights to organize that their counterparts in Cingular have. In addition, we seek to assure that Verizon maintains its committment to serve rural areas of the midwest.

Training sessions are taking place for the mobilization coordinators in each local to assure that they understand both the key bargaining issues and our mobilization strategy.

Locals are planning a series of worksite actions on the first day of North Central bargaining, December 8th. Earlier this year, District 4 members joined other Verizon members across the country in workplace actions on the first day of Southwest bargaining. A solidarity day with IBEW locals whose North Central contract expires after CWA's is in the works for mid-January.

District 4 Verizon members are more informed and mobilized than ever before. This will be the key to winning a fair contract.

Victory in Upstate
New York!

But Millions More Access Lines Still at Risk

This summer, Verizon threatened to sell all of its operations in upstate New York, jeopardizing more than 5,500 CWA and IBEW jobs, as well as good quality service for area residents. In late September, District 1 announced that Verizon had stopped pursuing the sale after a CWA campaign of letter-writing, lobbying, rallying and mobilizing.

However, Ivan Seidenberg has made it clear that Verizon plans to continue trying to shed access lines in rural and lower revenue areas as it "pursues a higher growth profile."

At an October meeting with Wall Street analysts, Seidenberg said that even though Verizon had not succeeded in selling off upstate New York, "we still want to think about . . . reducing the size of our access line business."

Such sales would be a disaster for workers and consumers. The biggest danger is that a private equity firm like The Carlyle Group—the firm that bought Verizon's Hawaii lines—will buy the access lines simply to generate cash flow for investors. Then they’ll cut costs to the bone—slashing investment in the network even further and cutting jobs as much as possible.

Another possibility that Seidenberg is discussing is spinning off "clusters" of access lines as a new business, perhaps run by current Verizon managers.

As Seidenberg made clear, he is not concerned with serving the public with critical telecommunications services or protecting good hometown jobs.  Instead, "the issue for us is changing the growth profile of Verizon so that the investor looks at us completely differently than the way they looked at any old RBOC in the past."

Remember when we were the proud providers of a public service and weren't out to squeeze every last buck for Wall Street?

(Listen to Seidenberg's October speech to Wall Street at investor.verizon.com/news/20041006 )

Verizon Opens Second FTTP Tech Support Center

Verizon is opening a second Fiber Solutions Center (FSC) to provide tech support to fiber-to-the-prem customers. The new center, in Hampton, VA, will create at least 100 new jobs by January.  As in the existing FSC in the Dallas area, bargaining unit jobs will be union.

Verizon predicts that the Hampton FSC could employ up to 500 people in the next two to three years.

Visit Unity@Verizon on the web for more:

• Mobilization photos
• Bargaining updates
• Past Unity@Verizon e-mail updates

If you'd rather receive only periodic updates when we need you to take action or there's significant news, please reply to this message and tell us "periodic."

(What's happening in your area?
Send information and photos to unityatverizon@cwa-union.org and we'll publish them here.)

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If any of this information is incorrect, our apologies. Please update your information: http://www.unionvoice.org/cwa_unity_verizon/smp.tcl?nkey=nql77j7ix&