As an EWAer, my buddies and me in the garage have had it. No information for over a week, constant pressure to get through more and more jobs, missing family and graduations, births, and last days at school. Living in the west, I get 4 days off every 21 days, but it takes 2 days for travel there and back. This is not fair and has gone on far too long. Time for this to end.
So, on June 1 through 3, we plan to do a work slowdown in our garage. Maybe 1 job per day, if that. How? Simply by going through the PPE and safety steps in excruciating detail, taking our time in every job, not closing out the first dispatched job until 6:50 pm, taking advantage of the required cleaning, missing safety equipment, holes in gloves, 188s that don't work, etc, This is all stuff we were told to do at the NCC training but that garage managers and supervisors skipped actually doing in the field when we rode with them -- let's take advantage of the system!
The unions and Verizon executives have made little progress. They keep trying to appease management staff in EWAs with e-cards, 5 by 5 offers, and $10 Starbucks gift cards for completing jobs, meanwhile our families suffer our lack of presence and interaction. The only ones not putting pressure on the situation is folks in an EWA that have very little say but will bear the brunt of RIFs in the months after the strike ends, when the company tries to correct the losses in subscribers and the increased expenses. Let's force this from our side, the third leg in this stool - the management staff in an EWA.
Join me. Send an email to vzslowdown@mailinator.com which is an anonymous email account. Bob Mudge's team is paranoid and reads this web site (hi, Mary!) for rumors and to gauge union activity, so send emails from your personal account. Corporate email goes through a filter and is monitored closely right now.
Union folks, we may disagree on a lot of things, but we do agree this needs to end for all of us and our families. Please hashtag #vzslowdown to get the word out. We read your posts and web site, standuptoverizon. Again, this is June 1-3.