I would say we will probably just lay down and let them. Democrats of 2015 are not Democrats of 1975, as I am learning. I wish it weren't true. You may as well post a recipe for fruit salad, many times.

This should have 30-50 with 81 views listed

Rush Mush and his corporate backers and the rest of his ilk on the airwaves were very successful in swaying public opinion against the unions. Couple that with corporate citizens who really don't give a damn about American workers, and a government that just lets it all happen for profits of the top 1%, brings us to today. This is why you see no support for this thread. Have been watching this happen for 35 years.

Not focus on the business. The rest of the article comes off as angry at the wireless side of the house because of consumer choice.

Focus on their demands - not a separate business unit that they never interact with.

The wireless communication world is not going away. Not at VZW, Mob, Sprint, Cell One, At & T, Cricket, Trac, etc etc. The consumer will howl.

Focus on their fundamental goals and objectives.

Then you don't know what's really at stake here.
This goes beyond just wages and benefits; the goal of Verizon management is to monopolize the wireless spectrum.
By engaging in willful neglect of the wired sided of the business ( which the wireless is connected to, by the way) it will force those customers to have no other option but to go to wireless.
Wireless itself, is NOT a new technology; ever hear of "radio"?
Verizon has made promises to rewire the network to the "information superhighway" and reneged on those promises all the while increasing fees and bills without anything to show for it.
Here's a video by Bruce Kushnick of the New Network Institute on how Verizon is systematically dismantling the Public Switched Network Infrastructure and Technology (PSNIT;emphasis on PUBLIC) and ripping off the public and government.
(

)

Ever wonder why you never got FiOS?
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/the-great-verizon-fios-ripoff_b_1529287.html)

And wireless isn't the miracle it's touted to be.
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/how-wireless-hype-is-hurt_b_1463527.html)

The bottom line is that Verizon and the other telecoms want to end Net Neutrality by any means necessary. Privitizing the network is going to be their workaround
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/2014-the-end-game-in-tele_b_4533510.html)

In the end, this is not just about wages and benefits. This is about corporate fascism taking over and dominating communications...for starters.

But that's because locked down and moving forward with what they want from these negotiations will make it a better deal for the ILEC or CLEC that grabs them.

In all of the links - there's nothing about the purchase of AOL. Or that Holly Hess is their new CFO.

The days of the dumb pipe are over. I don't see why CWA or IBEW can't exist in a brick and mortar or rather - copper and fiber world. I don't see how that business can't thrive. It can! I'd also like to see copper taken over by Fed Gov and treated as a national public service.

But that has to be a separate world without hooks into wireless. The two technologies and companies that support them need to be broken up.

Content being married to service - good.

Services being married to each other? That bothers me - and it probably bothers you. It gets too big. And well Verizon has been too big with the copper for too long. Time to break it up. Wireline/ FIOS should go one way and wireless the other.

If AT & T and T Mobile want to be these big huge we are everything to all people companies - let them. That's their plan they can go with it. But it's not the best plan - just my opinion. It looks like a monopoly.

What Verizon and ATT want is several things. They want unregulated metered service and they want CWA and IBEW dead. I see where Verizon Wireless retail workers at a Brooklyn store have organized but as far as I know 100% of the technical side of the Wireless house is non union. The same is true for Verizon Enterprise formerly MCI and World Comm. Enterprise offers special circuits on copper and fiber optics that is non regulated. They also have a massive fiber optic network that they use to carry data all over the nation.

Wireline in Texas anyway has been systematically destroyed. People have turned to cell service in desperation as a once extremely dependable service is becoming a nightmare with outages long and increasing. I am sure that the situation is no different in other parts of Verizon's footprint. I guess we will turn to people like my son (a ham operator) once again in times of disaster when cell service will fail and there are no landlines to fall back upon.

The transportation, communication, power grid and financial infrastructure of the United States was once the envy of the world is now a shambles. It is all in the hands of greedy investors who only want to make a buck and care nothing about serving the public.

The stores in NYC that went Union - had no choice. I think that will be an impetus to raise the hourly wage for retail workers in all high cost of living areas. It makes sense.

I disagree on people turning to cell service in desperation. The millennial group is HUGE. We know two things - they want to be able to be reached anytime/anywhere - and they like a voice for customer service (not just in telecom - but in everything). They are a demanding beast and this is how they live. It's why you won't see VZW's customer service go abroad - one. . . no charter outside of the US. two . . . customer proprietary information can't be put at risk. three . . . the millenials will howl.
I also don't think they want the unions/ copper dead - they just want out of the business. Copper isn't profitable.
And it's not sexy - and no one gen x and younger in the workforce wants anything to do with it in terms of running the business. Sell to an ILEC. Even better? Turn copper into a government owned/operated thing and make these Federal jobs. Install public 'pay phones' where the switch turns them to 'free' in natural disasters.

The service is horrible because of the lack of preventative maintenance. As soon as any cell site goes up the people grab on to it in, yes, desperation and at a higher cost, and drop their landline service. This particular phenomenon has little to do with Millenniums. What you say has truth to it but the carrot of smart phones etc will be soon followed by the whip of unregulated monopoly. I'm retired and may not live to see the end game but I certainly see where it is going.

I've been completely satisfied with their service. And they tell you what progressive causes they donate to. I won't use any other company.

I try to tell people about them as much as I can. I've been happier with their service than any other company I have dealt with in the 20 years I've had a cell phone. Keep spreading the word, they donate to some great progressive causes.

"Despite $18 billion in profits over the last 18 months, despite the top five Verizon executives pulling in a combined total of $44.4 million last year, with CEO Lowell McAdam alone making $18.3 million, and despite Verizon being the 15th largest corporation in America in 2014, management still wants major concessions from the workforce that built this company to what it is today."

Apparently their greed has no limits.

Of course I'm only building on top what you had posted a day earlier.