Small paper supports Verizon workers on strike: Union workers, stand strong!

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110814/NEWS04/108140329

August 14, 2011

We support the tens of thousands of striking Verizon Communications workers. They're not asking for more. They just want to hang onto pay and benefits they have.

Verizon's contract with its 45,000 land line workers expired Aug. 7. Workers are members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. They went on strike Monday across the country, including at Verizon's Stroudsburg and Tannersville offices here in Monroe County.

And why wouldn't they? After all, these are not public employees, paid by ever-stretched tax dollars. They are working for private enteprise, in fact a highly profitable communications giant that ranks among the top-earning corporations in the nation. Verizon, which pays its CEO 300 times the salary of an average worker, is asking union members to agree to work-rule changes and adjusted monthly contributions to their health care plans in light of declines in traditional landline phones. For their part, line workers say their jobs overlap and facilitate wireless business anyway. Surely Verizon could use retirement and attrition to shift line workers into roles in the wireless sector.

Meanwhile, Verizon's growth overall is strong, and continued healthy profits are virtually guaranteed given the ongoing growth in wireless technology, the public's infatuation with cell phones and Internet services. The second quarter of 2011, in Verizon Chairman Ivan Seidenberg's own words, "has been one of Verizon's best quarters since the 2008 economic downturn. We expanded sequential margins in both our wireline and wireless businesses, and in the second half of the year we expect Verizon to build on this strong, positive momentum to continue to drive profitable, sustainable growth." Given that business outlook, Verizon workers are well positioned to resist company demands for concessions.

FULL article at link.