verizon/usa

text in german
From the hotlines-leaflet no. 4 on workers' struggles (July 2001):
(Short version of a report on the strike in German, 08.06.01)

In August 2000 more than 85,000 workers of Verizon (telecommunication group) went on strike, among them technicians and many call center-workers.The official strike demands were higher wages, less compulsory overtime, restrictions for the re-location of departments and the chance for the unions to organise the workers in the mobile- and internet-part of the company. The conditions in the call centers were characterised by shifts of ten hours or more, dictated standard phrases, strict surveillance, the obligation to reach a certain sale-target, stress due to the high amount of calls, etc. The unions of the communication workers (CWU) and the electricians (IBEW) organised the strike and negotiated with the management. That used about 30,000 other (white-collar) Verizon employees as scabs in the maintenance departments and call centers. Although most calls are connected automatically and therefore the Verizon-operations could be kept up, the management could not prevent the call centers becoming quickly blocked, calls were not handled and important repairs were not carried out. As well as pickets in front of hundreds of Verizon-buildings there was a series of acts of sabotage against switchboxes and cables and attacks on maintenance trucks driven by scabs. After two weeks the management gave in, accepted certain points and agreed to a new collective agreement: the wages were raised, team-bonuses introduced, overtime was limited to eight hours per week, transfers of workers restricted, and the unions got the approval for their attempts to organise the mobile- and internet-departments.

A major factor here was that the union still had organised 60 percent of the workers of Verizon. More than 85,000 workers on strike could put so much pressure on the management that many demands could be pushed through. The problems of such a settlement are shown by the daily work situation in the call centers: now people get a little higher wage and do only 1,5 hours overtime, maybe with a few calls less every day. But what did CWU-president Morton Bahr say about the strike result: "This settlement secures the future for our members at this company and it also helps sharpen Verizon’s competitive edge". The workers still work their butts off!


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