Verizon to pull striking worker's health benefits on August 31st

By on Aug 17, 2011 at 6:05 PM
mobile August 17, 2011

After disagreements over new contracts, 45,000 Verizon workers, or roughly 25% of the company’s workforce, went on strike on August 7th. The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers refuse to pay a $100 monthly premium on their health benefits and do not agree with other contract terms, but now they may have no benefits at all. Verizon is threatening to pull all health benefits from any employees who are still striking on August 31st. Verizon has already filed a lawsuit against the Communications Workers of America accusing the union of harassment and sabotage, and it has been granted injunctions against picketers in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The unions aren’t happy: “We feel the company is exercising any means possible to make our members suffer in hopes of breaking our units,” president of CWA Local 2204 Chuck Simpson told reporters. Formal talks between the workers and Verizon are ongoing, and Verizon said it sent letters out to give strikers enough time to find alternative benefits.

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  • http://twitter.com/gregster68 Greg Oaster

    Good for Verizon.  I would love to have to only pay a 100 bucks a month.  Right now I am paying over a $150.00 A WEEK.

    Sorry union guys, you have to suck this one up.  You are going to get absolutely no sympathy from me on this issue

  • http://twitter.com/Starblade42 Jonathan Huff

    Unions briefly were very helpful, and now, all they manage to do is utterly destroy the businesses that their union members work for (Wonder what happened to the steel industry?  Unions killed it.  What happened to GM/Chrystler? Unions.  Why did Ford not die? They stopped letting unions control them).

  • Anonymous

    How any of you small minded zealots could support unions after what they did to the American auto industry is absolutely disgusting. Thanks to greedy unions, every single industry that America used to be the leader in, has been turned over to 3rd world countries. You supporters live in this fantasy land where you can demand whatever ridiculous wage you think is satisfactory, with no regard to what the rest of the world is doing. You’re literally killing America’s ability to compete in the world. If unions are allowed to continue their destruction, you can guarantee that NOBODY will ever keep their business here – it will simply be too expensive for them to do so. 

    Sorry your parents never told you, but you can’t work at Verizon answering phone calls at a desk all day and make 80k a year with full benefits. That’s a job that requires minimal brain power and pays the same. If you want to enjoy all the comforts in life then go out and do something with yours, kind of like what the CEO’s did that you hate so much. It makes me sick to hear you people begging like little children. Do you you hear doctors, lawyers, and CEO’s complaining about not being paid enough? Of course not. The funniest part is that NOBODY is forcing you to work anywhere. If you don’t like it, quit and get a job that provides the pay and benefits you want. If the pay and benefits you want are so outlandish that no company would ever pay them, that should give you some hint that what you’re asking for is a joke. I hope Verizon fires every single one of you pieces of trash and hires people that are actually thankful for the work. 

    • Brandon

      “if unions are allowed to continue their destruction..”… What are you talking about? You do know that Unions only consist of 6.9 percent of the private sector workforce? As a matter of fact, unions have been on the decline for over 30 years now. Of course companies are going to say it’s too expensive to do business here. Even a non-union worker making 30k a year and minimal health benefits is going to cost more than what if would cost to hire someone in India to do the job. As a matter of fact, Verizon has already outsourced some of it’s jobs to India and contractors. If you don’t believe me, call their tech support. I can only laugh at your comment about doctors, lawyers and CEOs not complaining. So I guess in your world, everybody should be a doctor, lawyer or a CEO? To say a job requires minimal brain power,
      when you don’t actually do the job makes you sound like another brainless idiot. You don’t know what the goals, or objections are that the reps have to meet everyday. And then you hope all the union reps get fired. Yeah, Upi obviously haven’t read anything, or done any research on this. If you did, you would know that all the unions wanted Verizon to do is negotiate. Verizon went to the table with 100 concessions. Some of those concessions included things like eliminating job security, pension, a decrease in pay, and health care changes to go along with a sleuth of other demands. Of course if it was up to someone as brainless as you, the union would’ve accepted all those demands. I actually don’t blame Verizon for laying out all their demands up front. It’s all part of this age old thing called negotiating. Even CWA President Larry Cohen said on the ED Schultz show, that Verizon said they knew they wouldn’t get all their demands. Again, that goes to show that Verizon put everything out there, knowing some things would be negotiated away. Now it’s up to both sides to find that middle ground that benefits the company, without drastically impeding on the way of life of it’s employees.

  • Sv

    pooor union workers waaaaaahhhh

  • Rafaellugomd

    I can’t understand this kind of stuff in these difficult times plus I am self employed.  $100 dollars for healthcare is not a lot and although I have no details, if they don’t like it then go self employed.  People love to criticize big companies and how evil they are, but forget that these are the companies that employ and take risks.  Too much pushing and the company suffers and no one wins.  Ask the car manufacturing unions.  I recommend, go back to work and be happy there is a job.  
    RL

  • http://twitter.com/cisox Brandon Peters

    Companies have three groups of people they have to worry about: Customers, Shareholders, and Employees. In order to cover the increasing cost of healthcare, they can do several different things that affect one or more of these groups. One thing they can do is absorb that cost and not charge the employee, but this hurts the shareholders and ultimately the customers with increased prices (shareholders come first). Another solution is to start charging a small premium to the employees in order to not hurt the customers or shareholders. The $100/month is a very good rate in comparison to average health care premiums.

  • Anonymous

    There are a lot of stupid people on here siding with corporations. Corporations and the wealthy are sitting on 43 TRILLION in American wealth right now. And you are ok bringing people down to your level willing to work for anything; rather, than everyone trying to help each other up.

    Americans have become hateful and they can’t see straight because of it. You think the corporations that are already screwing you and making record profits will somehow treat you better when the labor movement is gone?

    You are fools and you deserve what you get. You begrudge a fellow American making $30/hour but have nothing to say about a CEO who adds no value pulling down $15 million a year. You are sick, suckered and brainwashed.

    There is no hope in the country because the masses are brain dead!

    • Yoyo

      What the hell is with the idiots complaining about how much a CEO makes, HE’S THE DAMN CEO of course he makes much more than those on the bottom rung, why should i have a problem with how much someone makes who earned his way to the top, hell someday i want to be up there making that kind of money so would be pretty stupid to hate on that now wouldn’t it

  • Me

    The problems with unions is that they violate the laws of supply and demand by artificially increasing the cost of labor above the market rate.

    Labor unions were the best thing to happen to the American work place but their time has come and gone.

  • http://twitter.com/rdg666 Renee Gerber

    Pathetic, the way Verizon treats its employees. I just wonder how well the company would do if these people all just quit…

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