45,000 Verizon Workers Go On Strike Over Contract

Fox News / Associated Press ^ | August 7th, 2011

[Wiggins]

Tens of thousands of unionized Verizon Communications Inc. workers from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., went on strike early Sunday after they failed to agree on a new labor contract with the telecommunications company.

The Communications Workers of America said negotiations in Philadelphia and New York stalled Saturday night after Verizon continued to demand more than 100 concessions from workers and the unions refused to budge.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/08/07/45000-verizon-workers-could-strike-over-contract/#ixzz1UJlpQfth

[Terry Mross]

We’re in a recession. Unemployment is 9.1%... or higher. The credit rating just got downgraded. And these people want to go on strike.

[mylife]

Dumbasses

[mylife]

I am betting, in a major economic disturbance that people wont give up their $150 family 4g plan...

Brilliant!

[balch3]

I know someone in management for Verizon in TX that is going to be a replacement worker. They’re pretty worried about being away from home for an extended period and also about safety.

[max americana]

These spoiled jackasses wanted 100 concessions?? Most people in America want one..to be employed. I’ll bet thousands of let-go IT guys in the past 3 months alone would be glad to take the jobs of these clowns.

[Michael Barnes]

It's real easy to "hate" Verizon. Putting that aside, if Verizon fires 45K because of this stunt; I support them. Chances are however, the government will step in and say otherwise since the telco's (this one included) are running government social programs at the expense of their regular paying customer base.

[eyedigress]

45,000 jobs just opened up. Good Lord. It would take a few days to get them back to 100% with the skill and talent ready to go. So be it.

[lurk]

Union popularity has been trending down for years.

There are hundreds of unemployed people for every one job opening.

One would think that these union workers would discern that this isn’t 1972.

Then again, they are leftists.

[NoLibZone]

I love it!

Verizon is the single worst service or product I have come across in my 53 years of life!

I hope they all get axed.

[Loud Mime]

Obviously, they believe in their pro-union president.

[smokingfrog]

Doesn’t seem like a very smart move in this day and age.

Can you hear me now?

[eyedigress]

The idiots need to understand this is no time to be demanding a damn thing. The fools will be replaced with those ready to go.

[onyx]

LOL. Prefect© timing. /s

[4rcane]

not open, lost, the company can just move to another state or another country

[arrogantsob]

The Union is about to learn about the folly of striking during a depression.

[Wiggins]

It makes you wonder sometimes what these people could be thinking of.

[Myrddin]

I was a manager at PacBell when the 1989 strike hit. I was assigned to check all the offices in the desert. El Centro, Holtville, Calexico, Imperial, Calipatria, Brawley and Niland. 12 hours on, 12 hours off. My shift was 7 PM to 7 AM. The strike coincided with the Perseid meteor shower. Great viewing in the desert. Lots of driving. Food and lodging covered. Getting hit with spray from a passing ag plane and passing out for 4 hours in the Calipatria central office was the worst thing that happened. Apparently, I'm real sensitive to the organophospates they were using.

The Bell operating companies always string a strike along until the wages and benefits saved during the strike exceed the concessions they intend to offer at the table. The more they ask, the longer the strike will run. The union members ALWAYS lose. The fat cat union bosses really don't give a damn. They understand the game. The BOCs usually learn what union labor they can do without in the strike too. While I was out, the computer facility was fitted with new robotic tape handlers. 100% of the non-management personnel handling tapes on my floor were out of a job at the end of the strike. One manager could swap out the 8mm tapes each morning on the UNIX boxes. The big robotic tape handlers cared for the mainframes. In the desert, the step by step switches were replaced with new digital switching machines that are remotely administered. Most of the non-management folks in the desert didn't have a job after the strike either. I took advantage of having the non-management folks out of the CO buildings and fixed many trouble tickets that they refused to work while they had a contract. Tough beans guys. They got fixed while you were making idiots of yourselves in the parking lot.

[chuckles]

I'm a retired 30 year employee from SBC and you are absolutely correct on the strike durations. I asked how long a strike would be and the UNION bosses said 21 days at most. It was 21 days exactly. My boss told me that to get the package we asked for the company estimated 3 weeks of strike would cover it. The company saved the money and the union crowed they had taken on the giant corporation and won. Win- win, as they say. The only problem I found was I was paying dues for this crap. So, being from a "right to work" state, I quit the union and saved the dues.

Didn't much care for the company, but hated the union. What a bunch of con men.

[Sarah Barracuda]

I am switching to t-mobile myself..been a Verizon Wireless customer for 7 years but wanted to get an Android phone for the first time and with Verizon the data plan package is ridiculously expensive so I am hopping on board my sister’s family plan that she shares with her husband. Instead of paying 38.50 now and I only get 400 min and 100 text messages, I am going to pay 30 bucks, get 500 min, unlimited texts and 2gb of internet so I am gaining instead of losing