May 23, 2007 - Please post & share
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VZ Shareholders Win 'Say on Pay' of Top Execs

A proposal to give Verizon shareholders a more meaningful voice in executivepay decisions won after a recount garnering 50.2 percent of shareholder votes.

The recount was needed because the vote was too close to call at the company’s annual meeting in Pittsburgh on May 3. The proposal advises Verizon to submit future executive compensation packages to a non-binding shareholder vote.

This is the first time a “say on pay” proposal has won majority support at a publicly owned U.S. company.

As we reported last week, union-backed resolutions on "Golden Parachutes" and "Compensation Consultants" also received very strong support from shareholders.

The record-high support for a proposal opposed by Verizon’s top management is a strong indication that shareholders are clearly looking for a change in CEO compensation at Verizon.

For more detailed information visit our investor resources website: http://investor.cwa-union.org/verizon

In This Issue

Shareholders Win "Say on Pay" of Top Execs 

Kucinich: Sale to FairPoint "Doesn't Pass the Smell Test"

Obama: When Workers Form Unions, "Workers Prosper, America Prospers"

Boston's Mayor Latest to Call on VZ to Respect Workers' Rights

Ask your co-workers to sign up for Unity@Verizon: www.cwa-union.org/verizon/subscribe.html

At huge rally in Portsmouth, NH . . .

A sale to FairPoint would leave New Hampshire even further behind on the information super-highway -– hurting both economic development and job creation. To make the point, rally participants attempted to make phone calls of protest to the state Public Utilities Commission using special "FairPoint telephones."

Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich Says Proposed Verizon Sale to FairPoint "Doesn't Pass the Smell Test"

Nearly a thousand union members and community activists rallied in Portsmouth on May 19 to send a message to New Hampshire's Public Utilities Commission that the proposed sale of Verizon's landlines to FairPoint Communications will leave northern New England residents stranded on the information super-highway.

Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich announced that he would intervene to block Verizon's sale of its rural telecom business to FairPoint. Kucinich, chairman of the Domestic Policy subcommittee of the Government Oversight and Reform Committee of the House of Representatives, said that he would hold a hearing to review Verizon's sale to FairPoint.

"The Verizon-FairPoint sale threatens the pay, benefits, decent working conditions and job security of 2,800 union members employed by Verizon throughout northern New England," said IBEW System Council T-6 Chair Myles Calvey.

Verizon will especially benefit from the sale by exploiting an obscure tax loophole called a "Reverse Morris Trust" that would allow the company to save $700 million in taxes.

"Verizon picked tiny FairPoint because it allows Verizon shareholders to end up controlling more than 50 percent of the newly merged company's voting rights and economic value -- while Verizon reaps huge tax savings!" said Chris Shelton, Vice President of CWA District 1.

 "I understand why some customers are unhappy with Verizon. Even though it's one of the richest telecom firms in the world, Verizon has failed to include much of New Hampshire in its plans to build a high-speed broadband network," said Glenn Brackett, Business Manager of IBEW Local 2320. "But if this sale goes through, New Hampshire citizens will be 'road kill' on the information super highway."

While most other countries -- and companies -- are working on connecting more customers than ever, Verizon is disconnecting them. But the coalition of labor and consumer groups fighting the sale is growing as labor and community groups unite around the vision of securing a broadband build-out that would guarantee “High Speed Internet For All.” IBEW Local 2326, CWA Local 1400 and other opponents of the sale have scheduled another rally on June 2 in Burlington, VT.

More info about the sale (and the June 2 rally) can be found on:
www.verizonvsfairpoint.com, www.no-deal.org, and www.stop-the-sale.org.

Check out more pictures from the Portsmouth rally at: http://picasaweb.google.com/rand.wilson/StopTheSaleRally

Obama: When Workers Form Unions, "Workers Prosper, America Prospers"

Excerpted from the AFL-CIO News Now Blog, by Payson Schwin, May 15, 2007

VZB Tech Roger Reece Speaks with Barack Obama At the forum, VZB tech Roger Reece of Hillburn, NY, spoke with Presidential Candidate Barack Obama about the VZB campaign. Roger spoke passionately about how Verizon is denying union rights to VZB techs, and asked Senator Obama what he would do about it if he were President. Click this link to hear Roger's question and Obama's answer. http://youtube.com/watch?v=ywiRzNBz0a0 Sen. Obama now has joined other Presidential candidates in supporting worker-rights at Verizon Business. Sen. Hillary Clinton and John Edwards have also taken a public stance in support of the VZB tech union.

Sen. Barack Obama told a raucous crowd of more than 700 working men and women that as president, he would fight for the freedom to form unions, creation of universal health care and an end to the Iraq war.

In his opening statement, Obama spoke about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 trip to Memphis, Tenn., to help sanitation workers organize.

"They stood up for themselves. In this country, we should value the labor of every single American worker."

He said every worker deserves the freedom to form unions without intimidation, bargain in good faith and work in a safe environment. "Those rights are in jeopardy today," Obama warned. When workers join unions, "not only do workers prosper, America prospers."

Obama promised to "make the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land" and to make universal health care coverage a reality.

We can have universal health care by the end of the next president’s first term, by the end of my first term.

Sharon Masino, a dealer at Caesars Place in Atlanta City since 1984, described the intimidation she often faces as she helps organize her co-workers. She asked Obama:

As president, what would you do to make a worker such as myself not have to endure these feelings of intimidation and harassment when you try to organize them and stand up for their rights?

"One thing we have to do,” Obama responded, “is to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.” Obama also said those he appoints to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Labor Department would be more “sympathetic” to the struggles of working families. Finally, he promised to use the “bully pulpit” to support working families because it’s “been a long time since a president said, ‘Unions are a good thing.’”

Boston's Mayor Calls on Verizon to Respect Workers' Rights

Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino joined a growing chorus of elected officials supporting the Verizon Business technicians who are trying to unionize.

In a May 15 letter to Ivan Seidenberg, Menino wrote, "I strongly urge you to recognize the rights of Verizon workers to join a union without management interference."

Instead of respecting workers' rights, Verizon's response was out of step with other major telecom companies around the world. Management is running a classic union-avoidance campaign with mandatory meetings, one-on-ones, and misleading "fact sheets" full of distortions about our unions.

To date, 5 Senators and 15 members of Congress have written to Verizon expressing concern about how management is aggressively interfering to prevent employees from forming unions.

Verizon is feeling the heat from our political allies and from our mobilization. We've got to keep stepping up the pressure on management to turn away from its low-road, anti-union strategy. Our goal is simple: Verizon must return to its prior practice of remaining neutral and voluntarily negotiating with employees after a majority shows their support for a voice at work.

VZB Tech John Elia

"Verizon technicians are grateful for this outpouring of political support to help us convince management to recognize our union and begin bargaining for the good jobs and respect we all deserve," said John Elia, a VZB tech who works in Burlington MA. "All we are asking is that the company drop the intimidation and honor the neutrality and union recognition procedure that so many other Verizon employees have previously benefited from."

To read a profile of John Elia and learn more about the technicians' organizing campaign, visit www.freechoiceatverizon.com

Check us out online at www.cwa-union.org/verizon

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

Tear Down the Wall at Verizon!
Communications Workers of America       International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

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