Verizon Strikes Hit Berkshire County
 Verizon workers in Great Barrington said they'll stay on the picket line until their contract with the communications giant is resolved. |
More than a dozen Verizon workers and their families from Peru, Hatfield, Great Barrington and surrounding communities gathered in front of the Verizon headquarters on Tuesday afternoon on Bridge Street.
According to David Wasuck, who has worked for the company for the past 11 years, it's not about the money.
"If we put this into perspective, this company made $17 or $18 billion last year," he said. "To say that this is about competition is ridiculous. In the last quarter, they made $10 billion and netted $6 billion. Clearly, no one is hurting for money."
As of midnight on Sunday, Aug. 7, some 45,000 union workers from Massachusetts to Virginia declared a strike as negotiations between Verizon and union chapters broke down, leaving workers without a contract as of Saturday. Many area Verizon employees belonging to the regional chapters of the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers (2324) and the Communications Workers of America joined the 6,000 workers statewide in one of many demonstrations planned for Berkshire County and beyond.
The strike does not affect the company's separate wireless or retail divisions.
The sticking point is, not surprisingly, health care. But IBEW business manager John Rowley said it's much more than that.
"This should be give and take, that's what a negotiation is," he said. "But at the bargaining table they have tried to isolate every issue inside of taking the contract on as a whole package. That's totally fruitless, this isn't an auction. Health care is just one of some 40-odd issues on the table. They're not being honest with their workers. On June 22, we sent a counter proposal and they said that they would look it over and respond. They never came back with another set of proposals. They wanted this to happen."
Philip Santoro, Verizon's regional media relations manager, said a strike is far from what the company wanted. In fact, he said, both sides are continuing talks in hopes of resolving the negotiations quickly. In the meantime, Verizon has been training "tens of thousands" of temporary employees ranging from management to retirees to fill in gaps left by the strike.
"What it really comes down to is health care," Santoro said. "Currently we pay 100 percent of their premiums for workers, retirees and their families. This is a big stumbling point. We've put different plans on the table. They won't allow us to freeze the pension that we currently have, but in turn we would enhance contributions to 401(k)s. It's a creative compensation and benefits package."
Santoro said reconfiguring contracts and making changes is necessary, especially considering the diminishing role of landline phones and communication.
"This part of the business was rapidly created at a time when Verizon was monopoly," he said. "There was no such thing as Vonage or Skype or Google Voice. We are losing these customers every day. We're trying to bring some parity to salaries and benefits. Verizon pays $40 million in benefits to our employees. That's not including salaries and other benefits. I don't think any company pays 100 percent on deductibles."
The phone system has been operating well so far, said Santoro. "Customers should expect some delay in installations because we don't have as many guys working in installation as it would if the union was on board ... typically we can repair an Internet line or phone in a few days."
Backup plans have been made to bring in more workes from the other parts of the state and beyond should a major event affect the lines. There have been some incidents of sabotage in the eastern part of the state, but none here.
"[Sabotage] creates havoc and slows down installations but more importantly, it puts people's lives in danger," said Santoro, because they can't call for help for health problems or emergencies. "We've got most of those people back up and running."
While Verizon may be hoping for a quick resolution to the standoff, others say the talks could drag on for months. Marci Lillie, who has worked for Verizon for 21 years alongside her husband, said strikers are more than willing to weather the storm, whatever it may bring.
"We've lost two incomes as a result of this," she said. "It's been very stressful and I'm just trying to make sure that my kids are OK. We're going to show up every day until this gets resolved."
Tags: strike, Verizon,
