December 18, 2005

What's on Scrooge Seidenberg's Christmas List?

At this special time of the year when we show the important people in our lives what they mean to us, we thought we'd take a peek at Ivan's Christmas list. Surely he'd have something special in mind for the employees who generate Verizon's billion-dollar profits.

Is he the kind of guy who gives fancy electronic gadgets? thoughtful handmade gifts? or maybe that old reliable, the fruitcake? Nope. His gifts are a little more . . . special.

*Union VIS employees in New England and Maplewood, NJ, are not affected by these changes.

Outraged Employees Respond to Ivan's Betrayal

Verizon employees are filling Scrooge Seidenberg's in-box with their outrage in the face of cancelled pensions and retiree health care and life insurance.

Ralph Casillas, a 25-year Verizon veteran who calculates that Ivan's move will cost him $101,000, took Seidenberg to task:

Read the entire letter.

"While my situation is bad, it is nothing compared to a 47-year-old, employee with 25 years of service. This employee does not reach his 75 points by the magical 2007 date. Under your scheme, he is losing in excess of $400,000 dollars.

"Think about what this means to your employees. Retirements that they have worked hard for are destroyed by the fiat of you and the board of directors. Were this a Dickens novel, it would surely be titled 'A Tale of Two Pensions.' Thanks so much for the seasonally appropriate lump of coal!

"Aside from the issue of trust, have you, your cohorts and the board no shame? A 25-year fGTE/Verizon loses what amounts a quarter of your yearly bonus, but to him it is how he would have provided for his retirement; have you no shame? The bargaining unit worker who drank the Kool-Aid and accepted an exempt supervisor job and now, without the bargaining agreement to protect her, will have to choose between college for her children and a retirement of some comforts; have you no shame? All the engineers, designers, planners and managers for whom a forty-hour week means there was a national holiday that week; have you no shame? Finally, given the life-style that you and your cohorts enjoy, do you not see that you have a noblesse oblige to your employees? No, decidedly not."

Ralph M. Casillas
Network Engineering & Planning
Trunk Forecasting

Read the entire letter.

Vote for Verizon Wireless as the
"Grinch of the Year!"

Because of its 10-year history of abuse, terminations and closing centers in order to avoid worker organization, CWA and the IBEW have nominated Verizon Wireless as the Jobs With Justice "Grinch of the Year." Vote now!

A World Unto Itself

In Friday's Boston Globe, business columnist Steve Bailey exposes the greed of out-of-touch Verizon execs:

"It may be of some comfort to those 50,000 managers at Verizon Communications Inc. who are fuming about having their pensions frozen and losing their retirement health benefits to know that the people at the top know all about hard work and sacrifice. Take, for instance, Doreen Toben, Verizon's chief financial officer."

Bailey quotes Toben on the financial discipline she's imposed in her own household: Limiting her daughter's spending on a new show horse to $300,000.

Tough love: Verizon CFO Doreen Toben limits her daughter's show horse spending to a sensible $300,000.

"So we go over to Europe and buy them. Generally the ones that she has now cost someplace between $150,000 and $300,000. That's her cutoff. Some of these horses are half a million to a million. It really is a world unto itself."

As Bailey notes, "Heaven knows, a mom has to draw the line somewhere."

Bailey goes on:

"Verizon's bosses are sharing the pain, freezing their own pension plans. They can afford it. Through the end of last year, the company had contributed $13.8 million to Seidenberg's pension plan and $11.9 million to president Lawrence Babbio's plan. Verizon contributed $3 million to Toben's pension. Last year alone, Seidenberg received $13.1 million in total compensation plus stock options worth $4.2 million. Toben received $4.5 million in total compensation and $1.3 million in options.

"At the top, as Toben says, it really is a world unto itself."

Read the full article. 

Send your kudos to Steve Bailey for covering the executive "sacrifice" angle of the story: bailey@globe.com 

VIS Strike Enters Week 7

Texas Locals Deliver Message to Kathy "Heartless"

Irving, TX:  CWAers from Locals 6186 and 6171 delivered the strikers' Christmas message to Kathy Heartless.

On behalf of the VIS strikers in New York, Texas CWAers paid a visit to VIS President Kathy "Heartless" Harless' home near Dallas. 

Harless lives in a community surrounded by 6-foot high brick walls and monitored by a security guard. (What on earth is she so afraid of?) The guard wouldn't let our band of CWAers through to spread some Christmas cheer in Harless' neighborhood, but agreed to deliver the strikers' holiday message.

New Yorkers Dog Verizon Execs All Over Town

Manhattan: Members of 10 CWA locals, Jobs with Justice, other unions, and city and state officials rallied with VIS strikers in Manhattan.

CWAers have been making public appearances right along with Verizon executives in New York City. 

After a strategy meeting, on December 8th, VIS workers from around the state walked up to the picket line at VIS offices at 61 Broadway in Manhattan for a big rally.

District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton led the crowd in chants demanding Verizon stop its greed and come back to the bargaining table with a fair and reasonable offer.  Many political officials joined the crowd, including State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, New York City Comptroller Thompson, and members of the New York State Senate and New York City Council.

Members from CWA Locals 1101, 1103, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1109, 1118, 1122, 1180, and NABET-CWA Local 16 filled out the crowd, giving the strikers warm support on a very cold night. Members of Jobs with Justice also came out to help to let Verizon know we are all in this together.

Verizon HQ, 140 West St.: VIS strikers prepare to confront Scrooge Seidenberg at the building re-dedication ceremony.

Warm Solidarity & Hot Chocolate
Also, Randy Weingarten of the United Federation of Teachers promised her union's full support and offered her headquarters across the street to the strikers to come over anytime, especially when it got cold, for solidarity and hot chocolate. 

Waiting for Ivan 
Earlier that morning, VIS pickets confronted Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg and dignitaries attending the re-dedication of Verizon's new headquarters at 140 West Street in lower Manhattan.  Since Verizon failed to invite union members to the ceremony, they decided to crash the party and mingled with the dignitaries wearing "VIS Strike/Everyone's Fight" stickers.  Business Agents from Local 1105 challenged Ivan on how he could celebrate the multi-million-dollar building refurbishment while over 300 members were out on strike as the holidays approach.  He had no answer.

Rather than confront the pickets on his way out, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to sneak out the back door, but was challenged by VIS workers demanding he speak to Seidenberg about his refusal to bargain in good faith with them.  He had plenty of bodyguards and, also, no answer.

Verizon's new headquarters at 140 West Street is directly across the street from the World Trade Center site and was severely damaged when the north tower collapsed.   

Larry Babbio, It's Time to Step Up to the Plate!
At a meeting of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, to which Seidenberg's #2, Larry Babbio, has recently been appointed, members called on Babbio to step up to the plate and order VIS to bargain in good faith. Local 1105 confronted Babbio and distributed a flyer explaining that "VIS wants CWA to agree to a contract in which management would retain the right to change the compensation plan at any time during the life of the contract. That's like having no contract at all. Larry Babbio, it's time to step up to the plate and order VIS management to negotiate a fair contract."

Boston Human Rights Day Events

As part of the "Workers Rights Are Human Rights" events in Boston (see more below), VIS strikers from Albany, along with other VZ members from L. 1118, and their Yellow Pages co-workers from Locals 1301 and 1302 joined a Workers' Freedom Trail march.

Brooklyn: VIS strikers got a warm welcome at the 3rd St. garage in Brooklyn.

Seidenberg's Goal: Drag Benefits Down to the Level of Wireless and MCI

In his webcast to employees, Scrooge Seidenberg reiterated over and over that he believes it's extremely important that all company employees be on the same benefit plans.

So did he decide to raise the benefits of Wireless and MCI employees to the level of other Verizon employees?  Nope.

Did he decide that executives should give up any of their millions in "supplemental" retirement money or other perks? Nope.

No, he decided that everyone should be dragged down to the lowest common denominator, and that everyone not protected by a union contract should lose the retirement security they'd been promised.

But don't think execs aren't getting the same treatment. In fact, last year, Verizon decided to standardize benefits between Denny Strigl, CEO of Verizon Wireless, and other Verizon executives. Oh wait --  in that case, Strigl's benefits were brought up to the level of other execs.

Scrooge Seidenberg also made it clear that these changes will come up in negotiations with CWA and IBEW in 2008. (Some Verizon-West contracts will expire before then, but Ivan's remarks imply that Verizon may hold off this kind of proposal until the Verizon-East units bargain in 2008.)

Upcoming VIS Support Events

Next week, CWA will be visiting Ivan at home (or one of his homes, anyway) for some caroling and picketing. If you're in the NYC area, join the fun! Thursday, Dec. 22, 6-7 p.m. at 30 E. 65th St., Manhattan.

Also, Local 1118 will be hosting a rally on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 5 pm, at the VIS office in Albany, 16 Corporate Woods. Strikers from VIS offices in East Meadow, Manhattan,  Westchester, Buffalo, and Syracuse will be joined by CWA members from Verizon telco, other unions, and state and local politicians.

Support the VIS Strikers!
Tell Verizon: "You're Taking on All of Us!"

1. Send a message to Scrooge Seidenberg and Kathy Heartless
2. Take up a collection for the strikers at your next meeting or in your workplace
• Send to Pat Telesco, CWA District 1, 193 State St., North Haven, CT 06473. 
  Make checks out to "CWA District 1."
3. Have your local adopt a VIS family
• Fax or e-mail your local's contact information and monthly donation pledged
  to Bob Master at CWA District 1 at 212-425-2947 or rmaster@cwa-union.org.

Human Rights Demonstrations Focus on Verizon Wireless

As part of nationwide actions marking December 10, International Human Rights Day,actions across the U.S. highlighted union-busting employers like Verizon Wireless and the need to enforce human rights in the workplace. Here's a sampling:

Boston: Seidenberg gets his due punishment in the stocks. (JwJ organizer Rand Wilson bravely played the part of Ivan the Scrooge.)

Charleston, SC: Activists and community supporters, including members of the South Carolina Progressive Network, with 62 coalition groups, leafletted a Verizon Wireless call center, where thousands of jobs were transferred when VZW shut down its Orangeburg, NY, and Morristown, NJ, call centers. It was pure coincidence, of course, that Orangeburg and Morristown employees were actively organizing with CWA at the time.

Leafletting was also scheduled for VZW locations in Greenville and Columbia, SC.

Philadelphia: On Monday 12th, as George W. Bush sat inside a $10,000-a-person luncheon, Jobs With Justice, the Student Labor Action Project, CWA Local 13000, United Steel Workers, Models Guild, Unite Here 274, CLUW, and several other community groups staged a protest on the doorstep of a downtown Verizon Wireless store. "We demanded that VZW honor the right for their employees to have a voice on the job. After our storefront rally we marched down to Broad St. to join the peace rally where Philadelphia Labor voiced our grievances with Bush's newest anti-worker/anti-union NLRB appointee (Peter Kirsanow)."

Boston:  About 5,000 workers from across New England marched and rallied at a Dec. 8 Workers' Freedom Trail. Following a kick-off rally, the workers, led by a town crier and bagpipers and drummers, marched to several locations, including a department store where unity groups successfully fought off attempts by Wal-Mart to locate in downtown Boston and a Verizon Wireless location, where workers have been forced to deal with Verizon Wireless's union-busting tactics of harassment and intimidation against workers. Members from IBEW L. 2222 and CWA Locals 1300, 1301, 1302, 1400, 1118, 1051, IUE-CWA Local 201, and TNG-CWA members from the Boston Globe were part of the march.

On Dec. 19th, Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, CWA, and IBEW will be leafleting at the Wang Theater in Boston, where Verizon Wireless is sponsoring the showing of White Christmas. Join them at 6:30 pm.

D.C.: Fired Verizon Wireless worker Clyde Rucker and CWA officers Larry Cohen, Barbara Easterling, and Jeff Rechenbach help lead the march to the White House.

Washington, D.C.: Fed up with the erosion of workers' rights in the United States, thousands of chanting, sign-waving union members formed a giant picket line in front of the White House on Thursday to demand that the Bush administration and American employers recognize that workers' rights are fundamental human rights. Clyde Rucker, a CWA member in Maryland who was fired for organizing at Verizon Wireless, told his story at the Washington rally and other fired and unfairly disciplined workers spoke out across the country.

Earlier in the week, CWA members and D.C. Jobs with Justice leafletted at Union Station and a downtown Verizon Wireless store.

Atlantic City, NJ: Activists took a break from the CWA District 1 Leadership Conference to visit a local Verizon Wireless store, where they spoke at length with employees and managers, put up signs, and alerted customers to Wireless' labor practices.

Bloomington, IN: At a rally and march to the court house, CWA Local 4818 president Justin Hawkins spoke about Verizon. 

Columbus, OH:  District 4 VP Seth Rosen told the crowd at a state house rally about Verizon Wireless. Two days later, activists leafletted Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile locations.

Cleveland: Showing of the "Tale of Two Companies" video comparing Cingular and Verizon Wireless' labor practices. Two newly organized Cingular workers were also scheduled to speak.

Austin, TX: At a rally in support of the city's bus drivers, District 6 VP Andy Milburn reminded demonstrators that the only wireless phone they should be carrying is one from Cingular.

Burlington, VT: CWA Local 1400 told the "Tale of Two Companies" at Vermont's first-ever Workers' Rights Board hearing.

Burlington, VT: Vermont's first-ever Workers' Rights Board hearing was put on by the University of Vermont Student Labor Action Project, the VT Workers' Center - Jobs with Justice, and the State Labor Council.

The hearing was chaired by U.S. Congressman Bernie Sanders and included other elected officials, religious leaders, and community leaders. The board heard testimony highlighting inequities in wages, jobs, health care, and workers' rights at employers such as Verizon Wireless, IBM, and Wal-Mart.

CWA played a big role, with Local 1400 President Don Trementozzi giving a presentation on organizing at Cingular Wireless versus Verizon Wireless and showing the CWA video "A Tale of Two Companies." Joining Don at the event were Local 1400 Vice President Mike O'Day, Local 1400 Treasurer candidate Sara Rotcavich, Chief Steward Darlene Stone, Steward Lisa Picard and Steward Anita Rodrigue.

• Send us your pictures and stories at unityatverizon@cwa-union.org 
• See more December 10th coverage from CWA and the AFL-CIO.

Web links in this issue:

• Verizon webcast on retiree benefit changes for managers and most VIS employees: http://www.verizon-media.com/iWeb/Media/benefits121205/#
• More information on retiree benefits changes: http://www.cwa-union.org/verizon/pensionwatch
• "A World Unto Itself" from the Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2005/12/16/a_world_unto_itself/
• Vote for Verizon Wireless as "Grinch of the Year": http://www.unionvoice.org/jobswithjustice/grinch05vote.html
• Human Rights Day coverage from CWA: http://cwa-union.aflcio.ga0.org/december-10
• Human Rights Day coverage from the AFL-CIO: http://aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/d10_photosmain.cfm
• Verizon to cut off pensions and retiree medical for managers: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/business/06verizon.html (free registration required)
• Union discount on Cingular Wireless: http://cwa-union.org/cingular/discount.asp
• 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.)

Please take just a minute to verify that we've got the correct local number, member status, and Verizon bargaining unit information for you.

Are you a CWA member? Unknown - please update
Your CWA local number: Unknown - please update
Your Verizon bargaining unit: Unknown - please update

If any of this information is incorrect, our apologies. Please update your information: http://www.unionvoice.org/cwa_unity_verizon/smp.tcl?nkey=nao7ww7mi&