Last week thousands of us took to the streets to send a message to Verizon: No more tax-dodging and no more attacking middle-class jobs.
We also took to YouTube. Over 80,000 people have watched this video, which features real union members talking about our fight for good middle-class jobs at Verizon.
We are getting the word out but we can do more. Will you help us reach 100,000 views by watching the video then sharing it with your friends and family members?
It’s time to mobilize to make Verizon agree to a fair and just contract. Members like you are pledging four hours a week to the mobilization effort at their workplaces and at community events.
Take a few minutes now to support the online mobilization by watching and sharing this important video: http://www.youtube.com/cwaunion
And get ready to picket on Thursday! Wear RED!
Posted on: Jan 18, 2012Verizon's Demands Still Outragous
Yes Verizon members are working, yes they are earning a paycheck and yes their benefits are continuing as they were on August 6, 2011, but its no time to relax and think mobilization is somebody else’s job. These were Verizon’s Core Demands just a few weeks ago and they haven’t changed by much.
No mention of a Wage Increase
Eliminate Pensions:
Eliminate pension accruals. For all current employees, your pension would be frozen as of December 31, 2011 and no new employee would receive a pension.
Eliminate the Pension Cash-Out option.
Modify the 401(k) Plan and reduce the Corporate Profit Sharing (CPS).
Eliminate Sickness Death Benefits
Eliminate Job Security:
Eliminate the Job Security Provisions for all employees.
Eliminate the Movement of Work Protection
Eliminate the 35 mile transfer provision
Eliminate provisions in Force Adjustment Plan
Eliminate New Contracting Initiatives agreement – which would allow them to increase the level of contracting
Eliminate Benefits:
Eliminate the current health care, prescription, dental, and vision plans and offer plans with high deductibles and premiums.
Active Employees – Annual
Premiums range from $1026 for single to $4580 family
And
Increase deductibles in network to $850 single - $ 2250 for family
Increase deductibles out of network to $1,000 for single - $3,000 for family
And
Increase Out of Pocket Maximum to $2,000 for single and $6,000 for family
And
Increase co-pays for specialist to $25.
CWA Parodys' Vz DVD
CWA produced this parody of the Verizon Video; it’s a joke but, make no mistake the nonsense they are shoveling in bargaining is no joke. Verizon is trying to kill our Middle-Class jobs, stay in the fight against Verizon & Verizon Wireless for a fair contract.
Report: Verizon wireline assets sale could make strategic sense
A new Goldman Sachs report theorizes that if Verizon (NYSE: VZ) sold off its consumer wireline assets it would pave a smoother way toward merging its wireless operations with those of its partner Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L).
"The remaining wireless and enterprise businesses (of Verizon) would have faster growth and a clear fit with Vodafone's assets and strategy, making it a more attractive merger partner," said Goldman Sachs analyst Tim Boddy.
Over the past year, Verizon and Vodafone have been working more closely together with a particular emphasis on global enterprise customers. However, as reported in FierceWirelessEurope, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said in September not to expect a merger in the near term.
If history is an indicator, the idea of Verizon selling off its remaining wireline assets isn't all that far-fetched. The service provider entered a somewhat unprecedented relationship with three of the largest cable operators in December to not only purchase spectrum, but sell each other's services.
"Given that it no longer faces the threat of integrated cable competitors, Verizon could potentially spin off its remaining Consumer Wireline assets," along with "large" pension and benefit liabilities, Boddy said in the report.
Besides its new agreement with the cable operators, Verizon has been busy selling off a large chunk of its wireline assets, mainly in its secondary and rural markets.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) President and CEO Lowell McAdam made it clear this week during the UBS Warburg conference that they have a set a goal to where they ultimately want to reach in building out FiOS Fiber to the Home (FTTH) service.
During the event, McAdam said that "for now the bottom line is we are going to build out what we said and not anymore."
While not setting a specific timeline or how many more markets it would reach with FiOS, the service provider has currently built out the service to 16 million POPs (point of presence) with ultimate plans to reach between 18-21 POPs.
However, McAdam added that if it can improve the cost structure on FiOS it will look at ways to scale it further.
"We developed a strategy with FiOS whereby if it puts FiOS down the street regardless of the services on the street we're going to move everything over to FiOS and get the copper out of service," he said. "That changes the scale and the cost structure associated with FiOS. If I can get some rhythm on that and be more efficient on the ONTs and what goes on inside the house, the economics of FiOS becomes better."
Before they reach their buildout goals, one area that Verizon is likely to continue to pursue with FTTH is the multidwelling unit (MDU), particularly in the New York City market.
"The big opportunity for us with FiOS is the MDUs," McAdam said. "If you go into New York it's been one of the higher incremental gain penetration markets for us because we gotten into these MDUs and I think that will be a great opportunity for us."
It's not a bad time to target MDU FTTH opportunities either.
The advent of compact optical network terminals (ONTs) by manufacturers like Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and Motorola (NYSE: MSI) in addition to new advancements fiber connectors, conduits and other innovations like bendable from the likes of Corning and 3M are making it easier for service providers to deploy FTTH services in buildings built well before the age of fiber.
While its flagship New York City and other large cities in its footprint will be the focus of the MDU fiber drive, the service provider has yet to target areas like Boston.
Regardless, the timing for a speech on winding down FiOS deployments comes on the heels of its new agreement with three major cable operators--Bright House, Comcast and Time Warner Cable--to purchase their spectrum and a series of joint service cross-selling agreements of each other's products and services.
The move with the cable operators announced last week provides an obvious benefit to its wireless network with a supply of unused spectrum from the joint cable operator-run Spectrum Co. However, the deal also has some interesting implications for the wireline network.
In addition to Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) reselling Verizon Wireless services, Verizon itself will be able to potentially resell cable services, including high speed data and video, as part of an integrated quad play bundle that would include wireless/wireline services to serve customers outside of its existing FiOS footprint.
Given the fact that FiOS is not universally available across its footprint, Verizon's plan allows it to quickly ramp up a suite of higher speed broadband and video services to customers that have had little options besides slow DSL service and satellite service.
Of course, the details such as pricing and what and where such a bundle of how exactly this will work out are still in question. In addition to having a quad bundle, McAdam said potential applications could include videoconferencing applications that work, for example, between the PC, the TV and the tablet computer.
This is not the only time telcos and cable operators have worked together, nor that a telco had a major stake in a cable operator. The former US West, now CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL), had a separate division it held under its US West Media Group.
Later, the legacy AT&T (NYSE: T) led by then-President and CEO Mike Armstrong beat out Comcast to purchase the assets for a whopping $62 billion as part of his dream to reenter the local phone business. Ironically, Comcast ended up purchasing AT&T Cable/AT&T Broadband.
While it's clear that Verizon sees light at end of the FiOS deployment tunnel, and the relationship with cable allows it to quickly ramp up its service portfolio, hopefully it will tread carefully and steer clear of the mistakes others made in the past.--Sean
Verizon to fill in FiOS gaps with home LTE wireless service
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has indicated that it will be soon offering a new fixed home-based LTE wireless service targeting areas where it has not rolled out FiOS to challenge satellite broadband providers.
According to a DSLReports article, the service provider revealed its plans during its Q3 2011 conference call. It's likely that the home wireless service will build off the test it conducted in in Erie, Pa., with DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) last year.
"You're going to see that come in the fourth quarter with the--what we now call the Cantenna which is not a commercial name obviously, but it's the antenna that we actually trialed with DirecTV, which was extremely successful," said Fran Shammo, CFO of Verizon in response to a question about launching the LTE in-home product on a national scale.
Given the slow speeds and latency that comes with satellite broadband service, Verizon's offering could be a breath of fresh air to rural subscribers that have had little Internet access options. What's more, Verizon could also use the new wireless service to woo former wireline customers that it sold off to Frontier (NYSE: FTR) and FairPoint (Nasdaq: FRP).
This is not the first time Verizon has toyed with a wireless-based home service. Last fall, the service provider launched its Home Phone Connect service that essentially provides a bridge between the wireline and wireless voice service domains.
One of the other questions, of course, is whether the broader launch of the LTE service means that Verizon will only upgrade existing FiOS markets where it has a video operating franchise, leaving other large cities, including Boston, Buffalo, Baltimore and Alexandria without the service.
"Now those lines that are outside that FiOS and outside of any potential of passing ever with FiOS we will continue to be competitive in this area but I think it's going to be around LTE," Shammo said. "We're not going to invest a lot of capital in the copper core network in those outlying areas. But I think we have a strategic bundle that we can go into those households with, give them a better experience than their currently having on their DSL line from a bundling of the wireless portfolio that we have."
However, a Verizon spokesman would not comment about anything beyond what Shammo said during the earnings call.
June 23rd, 2011 will be the first day of bargaining for the Verizon contract. Negotiations will be held at the Rye Town Hilton. CWA throughout the North East will be hosting rallies before the first day of bargaining to let Verizon know that we stand together for a fair contract.
Each and every member can have an effect on getting a good fair contract by being an active participant in all contract mobilization activities. It is for that reason; your Executive Board is asking every Member to participate in the informational picketing at every garage location half an hour before your tour begins for the day on June 22nd. See your steward for more information.
FiOS Deployment Study Bill
Members are asked to click the link and send the email from home (DO NOT USE COMPANY COMPUTERS OR COMPANY BLACKBERRIES).
WHAT DO YOU WANT THE UNION TO ADDRESS IN BARGAINING?
The Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, is distributing a questionnaire to help prepare for our next contract negotiations with Verizon in 2011. The completed questionnaires will be carefully tabulated, and the results will be used by your bargaining team to determine which issues are most important [...]
Verizon has notified the National Union that they intend to use independent contractors to perform all the work associated with the following functions:
Corporate Telecom Services
Cable Locate Work
Coin Collection Work
Fiber Solutions Center Work
We have responded to the Company that their notification to us was a wake up call to our membership. Clearly this notification shows their intent to move all the work to contractors. This was not a simple “six (6) month notification letter” but part of a Strategic Corporate Plan to destroy our bargaining unit. If Verizon believes they can destroy our Union they should know that they may get destroyed in the process.
It is time for every member to send a message to their managers. We have had enough. We are tired of Verizon sending our work to contractors. We are not taking it any more. It’s time to Fight Back !
Beginning April 4, 2011, on the National Day of Action, CWA will join forces with all Unions in this country and form a coalition with many organizations in this country to fight back.
Every member must be ready to Mobilize on April 4, 2011. There will be Mobilization at the worksite during the day and there will be separate events in the evening throughout the country and in your area. We will have more details about both activities next week.
On April 4, 2011 let’s send Verizon and the rest of Corporate America a clear message and tell them exactly what we feel about their notification letter. We are tired of Verizon sending our work to contractors. We have had enough. It’s time to Fight Back !!
Recently we have had several inquiries regarding a local chapter of CWA/Verizon retirees. If you are interested in forming a retirees’ group please send an email to (cwa1111@cwalocal1111.com) or you can all the local office at 607 733 1111. We will need your name, address, phone number and email (if you have one). This will be a good opportunity to keep in touch with friends.
UNION BEGINS WITH YOU MOST PEOPLE FEEL THAT THE "UNION" IS THE BOARD, THE PEOPLE WHO "RUN" THE UNION. THIS COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. THE "UNION" IS YOU: YOU ARE THE ONE WHO ELECTS YOUR OFFICIALS TO REPRESENT YOU. YOU ARE THE ONE WHO HAS THE PRIVILEGE TO GO TO YOUR MEETINGS AND SPEAK WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND, TO LET YOUR BOARD KNOW OF ANY GRIEVANCE YOU MAY HAVE. A STRONG UNION IS ONLY AS STRONG AS ITS MEMBERS. SHOW VERIZON YOU STAND BEHIND YOUR UNION, ATTEND MEETINGS, REPORT INFRACTIONS BY MANAGEMENT TO YOUR SHOP STEWARD OR LOCAL WHEN THEY OCCUR. YOU WILL
NEVER AGREE WITH 100% OF WHAT YOUR LOCAL DOES OR DOESN'T DO. BUT, IT'S IMPORTANT THAT YOU GET PAST THAT AND CARRY ON AND CONTINUE FIGHTING FOR YOUR RIGHTS. REMEMBER, YOU ARE THE EYES AND EARS OF YOUR UNION. WITHOUT YOU...THERE WOULD BE NO "UNION". REMEMBER AGAIN UNION STARTS WITH U...N...I...
REPRINTED FROM A MAN NAMED PAUL T. MORRISON
AFL-CIO
