Morning Lowell! I've been keeping a journal of what I see out here on strike. Very interesting! I love observing:
Unprofessional, untrained people doing very dangerous work, is a mixture for disaster! These so called trainees, are picking up downed electrical wires with their bare hands! No rubber gloves, no testing anything with their 188A testers! No hard hats, no safety gloves!! Climbing cross boxes with no ladder or climbing belts! Pulling manhole covers without bending their knees, (future back problems for sure!! It took 3 men to put a manhole cover back on and I used to pop the hole, set it up, break it down and put the cover back on all by myself!! smdh!! ). Taking all day to run a simple drop wire and still running it incorrectly, putting up ladders on a rotten pole, that he tested and we could hear it was rotten from across the street when he did the hammer test! 😳. Three techs standing at the bottom of a pole, surveying it like it was going to tell them what to do next! If it takes you 20 minutes and a phone call to figure out how to close a SAC, it's time to go the hell home!!
Ironically, Verizon has given these scabs brand new tools, new bucket trucks to use, new ladders, and new safety equipment! We have been BEGGING for new tools to do our job and they can NEVER order any for us! Always some lame excuse!!! Safety glasses that get scratched, due to daily use, are not available either, but they have hooked up these scabs and they can't even do the job correctly or safely!
How much is this greedy company paying to house all of these untrained replacement workers! How many hours are these workers logging, compared to the number of jobs being completed, and how much down time is the company paying for them to sit in their trucks, cars or whatever covert vehicle they are driving, to sit and spin their brain wheels to try and figure out how to do put together and place a simple power adapter?
So determined to break the union, they will spend MILLIONS!!! Well, keep on paying them Verizon, to destroy the plant you spent BILLIONS on! Keep paying them to get nothing done, keep paying them to risk their lives, keep paying them to be away from their families, and keep paying them to work 12-15 hours a day, 7 days a week! They have to be exhausted by now and when your tired, you can make deadly mistakes! You will be liable, because you didn't properly train any of them!! We know this, because they have told us themselves!!! Only when someone really gets hurt, due to your arrogance, and negligence, will you realize, that this could have been easily resolved just by extending our existing contract! One way or another, we will be out here until that time comes!!! #ONEDAYLONGERONEDAYSTRONGER#