January 13, 2006
Special Issue for Non-Represented Employees

Standing Up Now to Prevent Another 1989

I can't tell you how pleased I am to see our Union attack Verizon for this latest sign of corporate greed. If we have any members who are taking any personal delight in watching the management team lose their pension and medical benefits, I suggest that they review the history books.

Back in 1989, having already beaten up their Managers by decreasing their medical coverage and making them pay into the plan, they set their sights on the Labor force. What transpired was a vicious 17-week strike by CWA and the IBEW on Verizon. We were able to win that battle, but it was a hard fought victory.

If we don't show Verizon that they are headed down the wrong path with the Management Pension Plan and Medical coverage, could we end up repeating history in "2008". Let's hope not!!!

Thanks,
Tom Lane
CWA Local 1395

Union Members: Please pass this on to non-represented co-workers

CWA and Pension Rights Center Launch Website to Help Employees Fight Back

 
Website Gives Voice to Verizon Employees Angry Over Pension Loss
12 January 2006

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The Communications Workers of America and the Pension Rights Center have created a new website to give management and non-represented workers at Verizon Communications a way to voice their outrage about Verizon's assault on their retirement security, and to keep public attention focused on this disastrous decision.

The goals of the campaign are to direct media and public attention to Verizon's action and to help Verizon employees express their concerns and mobilize to persuade the company to reconsider the terms of its decision.

Through the site, www.verizonretirementwatch.com, Verizon employees and their supporters will be able to tell the world how the company's action threatens their future by betraying the promises Verizon made to thousands of employees.

The site includes information on executive pay and benefits -- the supplemental plan covering executives that will not be frozen -- and sets up an ongoing forum for employees and others to talk together and send a message to the company. It also provides specific information as to how the changes will affect employees of various ages and service.

Verizon has said it will freeze all pensions of management and non- represented employees at the end of June 2006. That could mean a loss of 21 percent, or more, of an employee's pension security. Union-represented workers at Verizon, covered by national agreements negotiated by the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, will continue to be covered by an on-going defined benefit pension plan.

CWA President Larry Cohen called Verizon's action, like that of IBM and others, "a chilling signal not just for current workers who have lost their retirement security, but to the future generation of workers who will be penalized before they ever start their first job."

"In the United States, increasingly, workers are required to bear the costs and the risks for their retirement and health care security. Today, they're also forced to pay the costs for the bad business decisions that push companies into bankruptcy, like United Airlines and Delphi, not to mention the misdeeds of corporate lawbreakers whose actions have wiped out 401 (k) retirement savings at companies like Enron, WorldCom, and others," he said.

"That profitable companies like Verizon, with fully funded pension plans, can freeze benefits is outrageous, even by the 'Gilded Age' standards of today's executives," Cohen stressed.

CONTACT: Jeff Miller, jmiller@cwa-union.org, or Candice Johnson,cjohnson@cwa-union.org, both of CWA Communications, 202-434-1168

Visit VerizonRetirementWatch.com to read and share your reactions to Verizon's outrageous actions, sign up for updates, and join an online discussion with your co-workers about how to fight back.

Welcome, MCI Employees!

We are still negotiating with management and waiting for them to provide us with full information on MCI employees and how they will be integrated.

Our goal is to unite all Verizon employees -- including former MCI -- to protect and improve benefits and working conditions, while management would prefer to keep us divided.

Negotiations may take some time. As soon as we know more, we'll post that information to the Unity@Verizon website and in this newsletter. Sign up to receive Unity@Verizon here.

Update:
VIS NY Bargaining Resumes, Then Breaks Down

After resuming negotiations on Monday, VIS bargainers once again engaged in illegal “bait and switch” tactics, causing talks to break down on Thursday afternoon.

Management refused to relinquish ultimate control over all aspects of wages for the next three years, which is a violation of the National Labor Relations Act. They simply refused to bargain in good faith over compensation.

We'll provide more information in our next regular issue. Check district1.cwa-union.org for the latest updates.

"We cannot understand the draconian action taken to break the covenant Verizon entered into"

Mr. Seidenberg,

I am a 57-year-old career [25+ years] level 07 management employee in Boston, Massachusetts.

I, like many of my colleagues, was informed via a very impersonal email on 12/6/05 that my pension and medical benefits were being cut. I do believe the ETHICAL way for the Corporation to approach this would have been to "grandfather" all existing management employees and then, on a go-forward basis, new hires and new promotes would make the decision to either join the company or accept a promotion. This would allow the Company to meet its competitive objectives over a period of time and in an ethical, honest and open manner.

I was a union member who was sought out for promotion by my first and second level managers.  I accepted the promotion using the rules in place at the time.  I expected that those rules would never change except on a go forward basis or else I can only perceive that I was deceived into believing that I would maintain the level of pension and medical benefits I was promised.  My understanding is that we have one of the largest funded Pension funds in the world.  We can not understand the draconian action taken this week to break the covenant Verizon entered into with the affected management employees.  Given that many of these jobs, both craft and management, are going away, it only makes sense that the liability associated with less employees will diminish over time.

Record profits should not be rewarded with reduced benefits. Purchasing a corrupt, bankrupt MCI should not be rewarded by reducing the benefits of the Industry Leader to those of the latter company (MCI).  We all have a vested interest in the success of our Company, but we believe reasonable profits for investors should not translate into Corporate greed at the expense of its employees.

Corporate America needs to understand the effects this type of action has on its employees and middle class Americans at large.  Corporations, as President Bush stated recently, have an obligation to share their largesse not only with the upper management folks, but with people who, on a day to day basis, run this company and who have contributed mightily to its success,

We are the face of Verizon, not upper management.  We contributed mightily to the success of New England Telephone, NYNEX, Bell Atlantic and now Verizon.  Without a strong middle class, corporations will lose the very target base they seek out, through advertising to purchase their products and services. I ask you and the other officers of this World Class Company to reconsider your actions and "Grandfather" the affected management employees.  Change your policy going forward if you will, but above all, do the right thing,  "Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk".  To do anything less is to mean we can never believe or trust in Verizon again.

I expect no retaliation for this open letter.

Regards,

Anthony Downing
Outside Plant Engineer
Boston, Ma.

Visit VerizonRetirementWatch.com to read more stories and share your own.

They have turned into a cold corporate giant...

“I am now looking at working the rest of my life, as I can not possibly expect the meager pension I am now eligible for under the new plan, to support me. I am angry at this company. They have turned into a cold corporate giant instead of the once "family" oriented company I joined under "Ma Bell".”

Food or health care? Shelter or health care? Education for my children or health care?

"What I can't fathom, is the fact that as a 6 year employee, I will now have to pay for me and my family's health care out of my own pocket upon my retirement.  Food or health care?  Shelter or health care?  Education for my children or health care?  I took a lower paying job with Verizon under the guise of an above average benefit plan.  Now, there is nothing.  Absolutely nothing."

Shame on you Verizon!

"My husband began with New Jersey Bell in 1955 and I started in 1957.  Everyone told us how lucky we were to be working for such a great company. We always considered ourselves fortunate, what with all the benefits, medical, and especially the pensions. We encouraged our son to join the company. In 1985 he became a member of the bell family. We were happy for him because of the promise of a pension when he retired. Between the three of us our service years total over 80 years. My husband passed away a few years ago. He would never recognize that this was the same company that made all those promises to their employees when they were hired. My son has 19 years of service and thought he was working towards his pension upon retirement, then without warning to be told there would be no pension after all. I feel like my husband and I betrayed him by encouraging him to work for a company that reneged on a promise to take care of its employees. Shame on you Verizon!"

...the 'good old days'

“Who thought the Cash Balance Plan would be the 'good old days'?”

Just be glad I had a job....huh?

I was sitting at my desk when I came across a new article online that stated something to the effect of "Verizon freezes pensions." It had to be wrong, it did not make sense to me: We are highly profitable, about to launch into a new technological arena and were about to acquire another company; this was a mistake. Then a Lotus Notes came up on my screen; it was true, the pension (a reward for years of service) was gone. My boss called an hour later, enquiring how I was doing with the news, trying to ensure me that everything would be OK and to just be glad I had a job....huh? But the sad truth is: all money hungry corporations are going this way; erasing the pension for the betterment of the bottom line. Now I have read that a company executive is expecting a large exodus of first level managers (can you blame them?) and to have them replaced by people from off the street. Yes, that is a sound decision: Replace experience with people who have no idea what a POTs line is. And do you know what was funny? That same executive stated that if it were not for certain changes in the company, we would have been bankrupt by now -- well, now it appears that is what they are trying to do, bankrupt us by staffing with inexperience.  

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