August 17, 2005

Telling the Tale

Around the country, activists are spreading the word that Verizon Wireless employees don't have a free and fair choice when it comes to organizing.

District 13 activists have leafletted at Pirates games (above), Phillies games, train stations, and amusement parks.

Locals have distributed tens of thousands of "A Tale of Two Companies" flyers to highlight the differences between Cingular and Verizon Wireless management.

Read the full text of the flyer below.

In Cambridge, Mass., 12 members of IBEW Local 2222 and the Solidarity Committee of Massachusetts Jobs with Justice went into Best Buy and Radio Shack at the Cambridge Side Galleria to hand out Tale of Two Companies Literature. Jobs with Justice organizer Jennifer Doe says that the action will be duplicated in September at additional locations because members enjoyed it so much.

CWA Local 4603 distributed more than 3,500 flyers at Milwaukee's annual Festa Italiana. Local organizer Joy Roberts says they received a positive response from the crowd and a good time was had by all!

Here are some of the other places where we've been telling the "Tale of Two Companies":

12 Metro stations, Washington, D.C., area MARC commuter train riders at Union Station, Washington, D.C. Virginia State Fed Convention Washington Post headquarters and 2 production plants (D.C., Maryland, and Virginia) VZW stores in North Carolina Festa Italiana, Milwaukee, 3,500-4,000 flyers distributed (CWA Local 4603) South Street Station, Boston (CWA Local 1400) Best Buy and Radio Shack, Cambridge(Mass. Jobs with Justice and IBEW Local 2222) 5 Boston Verizon Wireless stores (CWA Local 1400 and JwJ) Members in all CWA Locals in D2, D4, D9, D13

Chicago Cubs game (CWA Local 4202) Detroit Tigers game, 7,500 flyers distributed (CWA Local 4050) St. Louis Cardinals games Teamsters rally for striking beer truck drivers, St. Louis St. Louis Retired Members' Council D13 Locals leafleting every day (CWA Locals 13000, 13500, 13100, 13101) Dover racetrack, Delaware Rehoboth beach, Delaware Pirates games, Pittsburgh  Kennywood Amusement Park, Pittsburgh Pittsburgh International Airport Dorney Park, Allentown, PA Phillies game 30th St. Station, Philadelphia Sent to other Unions in Philadelphia area

Locals have more plans in the works to visit county and state fairs, more baseball games, car races, Labor Day parades and picnics, and more. Send us your reports and photos!  unityatverizon@cwa-union.org

IBEW Reaches T.A. with VZ-Florida

IBEW Local 824 reached a tentative agreement for 5,000 Verizon members in the Tampa Bay area. Key issues included job security and flexibility.

More info and photos on IBEW Local 824's website.

CWA Local Organizes FTTP Contractor

Fighting for Our Future

Locals are using a new workbook, "Fighting for Our Future at Verizon" to develop strategies to continue to protect our work and improve our standard of living.

District staff and local officers will be using the material from the workbook to educate members about possible effects of changes at Verizon and in the industry. The workbook looks at broadband and  wireless, competition from VoIP and cable telephony, and Verizon management's strategy.

We've used similar workshops to prepare for bargaining and develop mobilization strategies to support our bargaining committees.

Monthly Consumer Telecom Spending (per household)
Service	Cost	%
Wired	$47	28%
Internet	21	13%
Pay TV	45	27%
Wireless	52	32%
Total	$165
Source: TNS Telecom, 3Q 2005

One issue to consider is the increasing size of the telecom market. Although prices for some individual services, such as long distance, are dropping, consumers are spending more than ever on their combined communications services. Average household spending on communications services is $165 a month. Companies are competing to win as large a share of this spending as possible. Companies want to be able to sign customers up for the whole "triple play" bundles of voice, data, and video.

Up to now, Bells have offered all of these services except for pay TV. They're now reselling satellite and are beginning to roll out paid TV over fiber networks.

Cable companies can offer all services except wireless. Cablevision has begun reselling wireless from Sprint and others are considering following suit or even trying to acquire Sprint or T-Mobile. 

Download the flyer here [Acrobat 115K] 

A Tale of Two Companies

One company is Verizon Wireless, the second largest wireless provider. Verizon Wireless not only is non-union, it's dead set on staying that way.

Verizon Wireless uses management surveillance, threats and coercion to stamp out attempts by employees to form a union. The company closed down customer service centers in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey where organizing drives were underway.

The firing of union activists and retaliation against others has led to unfair labor practice complaints against Verizon Wireless by the National Labor Relations Board.

One company is Cingular Wireless, the largest wireless provider in the U.S.--and the only one that is unionized. More than 22,000 Cingular employees are represented by the Communications Workers of America.

Cingular respects the collective bargaining process and proudly advertises that it is a union company. In fact, Cingular even offers a 5% discount on service to any customer who belongs to a union affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

Just call 800-356-9752 to get your Union Plus discount.

Organizing Trainees Take on VZW

More than 50 participants in an AFL-CIO Organizing Institute took a
break from their training to demonstrate at a Verizon Wireless store in Baltimore, MD.

Six police cars arrived shortly after the demonstration began, and officers moved the picketers out onto the sidewalk -- where they were much more visible to the 5 lanes of traffic streaming by. 

The five IBEW members pictured above were among the demonstrators.

Cambridge Supports Workers' Rights

The Cambridge, MA, city council unanimously adopted a resolution supporting workers' rights to organize.

The resolution sets out an employer code of conduct that also includes family wages and health care. 

The Right To Organize: Workers have the right to decide on their own time whether they want to form a union and what demands they want to make as a union. Cambridge employers should respect these rights so that their employees can have a voice at work.

Read the full text of the resolution.

CWA and the chair of the Jobs with Justice Solidarity Committee testified in support of the resolution. 

Web links in this issue:

"A Tale of Two Companies" flyer: http://files.cwa-union.org/national/verizon/2Companies.pdf 
[Acrobat 115K] 

IBEW Local 824: http://www.ibew824.org/2005negotiations.phpp

Cambridge City Council resolution: http://www.cambridgema.gov/cityClerk/PolicyOrder.cfm?action=search&item_id=7358

Mobilization photos: http://www.cwa-union.org/verizon/photos

Visit Unity@Verizon on the web for more:

• Mobilization photos
• Bargaining updates
• Contract expiration list
• 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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