Well if Verizon Wireless only had a CWA contract maybe some of you people wouldn't be on the street.
33 replies (most recent on top)
I have Layoff protection provided by CWA in my contract... So sorry about your luck
Lowell McAdam is the highest paid CEO in the telecommunication industry who's stock is floundering and a company hurting from all his bad deals and decisions. The Union is made up of men a women who built the company literally brick by brick from it's foundation. There would be no Verizon today without those Union hands. Today they are barely struggling to hold their jobs, and a middle class title, all the while Lowell gives himself Millions in raises and bonuses, Today he looks to ship their jobs over sea's for even more greed. Today he knows he has to break the backs of the Union worker. Rid Verizon of a Men and Women that want to raise a family not in poverty. He has to Rid Verizon of anyone who shares in the companies money that he shoves with two hands deeper into his pockets for his family. He wants to Rid Verizon of the Men and Women who built the company that gives him his pay check.
1xyl, fortunately you are not a boss here. The Internet is a wonderful equalizer. Everyone's equal, meaning individuals from the union can chime in when and where they want as well, while you are free to continue whining about your tales of woe, espousing how you believed you were somehow exceptional, somehow special and, by God, could go it alone, union be damned.
I didn't see anything "scary" in the logic presented. You're creating your own ghosts my misguided friend.
It's funny how the union has gone as low as to come in these boards to recruit. They know people come here and check to see what others are hearing in regards to job cuts. The only rational response to a thread I've see thus far is to get your resume up to date and be flexible in your expectations. In all honesty , layoffs can come at any time and in any company, union or not. My own take on unions is that some people benefit from a unions backing. Others not so much. Remember unions are a business too. Just theirs is propagating the idea that your job is always in jeopardy and no matter how hard you work , how good you are at your job it will be irelavant when it comes down to it. Which is true. I've seen unions save the most miserable pieces of crap imaginable and unions back down when stepping in for the most honest worker. So when it comes down to it , don't unionize out of the hope that they'll save your job. Do it for the right reasons . don't let them scare you into joining
Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
PHQ...I think that it is more of a 1970s stereotype of Unions.
Back in the 1930s Bosses just hired Pinkertons to beat or kill you if you tried to unionize. (Those were the days eh?)
Other than that everything you said is true, and it is being done deliberately to make you quit, get fired, or retire.
It never ceases to amaze me how quick the backstabbing starts amongst the non-union ranks once the rumor of layoffs are in the air. I am a union worker and I've noticed that, by and large, a certain type of person gravitated towards that calling. I also have noticed a complete breakdown on that side of the shop. Where once, they presented a united front, it's now every man/woman for himself/herself.
I prefer the brotherhood, and the watching out for one another, that I've found within the union ranks.
United we stand, divided we fall.
In the words of Benjamin Franklin, "We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
We are a family.
They are not.
Keep fighting the good fight, not only for us, but for those duped into being against us, yet nonetheless benefitting from our shared sacrifice.
No union could have stopped the layoffs or prevent future ones. The wireless business is reaching saturation. Growth has slowed. There is no need for all the overhead. The growth in wireless is IoT. Get there.
I am in Sales and see many customers Face to Face?
I'm a Union worker and I do not get any breaks in my tour other than my mid tour lunch break, which is unpaid. So please stop with the negative 1930's Union stereotyping of years gone by, dead and buried. That's not today's Union worker. My day is so micro managed, that i have to request and notify my manager of a bathroom break. If i don't, i will be considered "off the job" and subject to suspension and or termination. Yes... it's that oppressive. By the way I'm out there in wind,rain freezing snow maintaining, installing and keeping our network and services up and running for the customer. I am also the ONLY one in the company that actually see's the customer face to face, The same customer that pays our salary. Our salary yours and mine comes directly through me, and what i do with my Union hands. While your getting forced out unfairly, We are not, We are not divided. We stand together for our jobs and what is right. We are not going to have our jobs giving away to another country with out a fight.
Couldn't agree more. Finally we need to stand up and not be afraid to let the CWA in. A lot of shady job elimination, job promotions and demotions and moving people and accounts have been going on. Layoffs to Sales is coming. People stand up and sign that card. CWA needs to go to every Verizon building this week and help the weak and beaten down workers see the light. You don't go to court without a lawyer we can't continue to go to battle without representation. BE HEARD...CWA STRONG!
"believing that the Union heavy wireline side is our Achilles heal"
I am wireless and have to say I am sorry it took me so long to jump on the Union wireline side. You guys were right from the beginning and now being at Verizon for 16 years, it is a joke how they are treating the loyal and dedicated employees and keeping the young kids they can make work 80 hours a week at 1/3 of my salary!
I don't climb poles anymore, I have a shinny new bucket truck. It has AC , nice tunes, and when I have to go airborne, it also has a bucket heater. A blue collar worker, yes that's me, not a negative term in my world. Sorry gotta go and take my break.
Why not organize the H-1Bs? That's a growth area.
If the Union cant stop layoffs why is it only non-union who were laid off?
The average vzw worker is pretty brainwashed I guess.
Residential pots dial tone is not the only use of our landline network.
Copper has been used and is used still for high speed internet in places such as France.
VZ had an interest in insuring dsl on copper would not work very well...they must carry competitors on their copper network.
The pots dial tone is indeed mainly obsolete, it has been replaced in most homes by WIRELINE high speed internet. A service which Verizon does not care to do good job providing on their regulated copper network, because then they would have to carry vendors on it. They want their obligations to the public to end.
The fight of VZ is to break the union, and rid themselves of competitors using their network. Once that is done I predict they will once again become interested in providing what most consumers want, which is high speed internet to the home with no data caps.
Wirelesses Lowell McAdam paid 130 Billion dollars of borrowed money for Vodafone, before the wireless price wars that is now killing Verizon. He paid 4.5 Billion for AOL, which has become a punchline joke for Wall Street. 1.5 Billion for terremark now being destroyed by Amazon. All of these WIRELESS Lowell McAdam deals are proving to be absolutely horrendous, and killing Verizon. Lets look at the Fiber Optics, in which Google and At+t are expanding this year in 2016. Google is expanding into Chicago, Atlanta and San Diego just to name a few. Fiber is profitable, and just as important the customers love it. But our very own Lowell McAhole who is desperately trying to be a Steve jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, is now pouring ALL of his wireless debts onto the Fiber Optic side of the house, WHICH IF STAND ALONE IS PROFITABLE! He has all of you wireless people believing that the Union heavy wireline side is our Achilles heal, THIS IS NOT TRUE. Lowell McAdam needs to look no further than into a mirror to see what, or who is killing Verizon.
I am one of the 200 CWA represented employess at VZW between network, brooklyn, and everett before the company makes a change they have to go through us I have more job protection and voice on the job than the rest of vzw if you can not see the writting on the wall I wish you the best of luck.
Really? Vodaphone didn't pay for anything? Blue colar morons...go climb a pole and sit up there for eight hours. Make sure you take your union breaks too.
VZ was the worst thing to happen to VZW. Residential land line is dead.
@xwc well said, we are all in this, our career choice. go steelers
I'm tired of hearing comments here about how the company doesn't care about this or that section of the business, as if we just have to accept it, and that's that. This company HAS AN OBLIGATION to provide service to the public. The PUC's and PSC's have failed us all miserably in this area. Are these toothless watchdogs being duped by Verizon, or are they bought off?
Let's see, how did VZW pay for the network we built, VZ. So let's see, without VZ we would not have VZW. And thanks for giving us Mcadam.
@wpb lives in some fairytale land where his precious wireless traffic does not need the wireline backbone network to ride over. JACKASS!
Let's see....a few years back VZW was not part of VZ. But not that VZW is part of VZ with its union bloated labor force trying to keep an ancient technology going dragging VZW down to the bottom with it, I guess something needs to be done. I would not say unionize, I would say cut ties with VZ ASAP so we don't sink to the bottom with them. VZ was the worst thing to happen to VZW.
We tried to talk to some wireless folks about unionizing, the reponse was, they treat us great we don't need to be represented. That was a few years back, hows that working for you now. Executives don't like being told what the can and can't do, remember corprations do not want you to unionize, why?
I work for wireless, I'm not particularly interested in being part of a union but I don't want to be a scab either! I can't believe they are requiring people so low on the totem pole (band 7 & 8) to have strike duty! Management I understand, but working stiffs? NOTHING BUT RESPECT for the linemen cannot believe that McA$$ wants me to do the dangerous job of some well trained, seasoned professionals for the money I make! I don't climb towers and do not intend learn to climb polls. Wish I was laid off! Looking for another job, praying that comes before a strike.
They are laying off hundred ds everyday....CWA is weak. They are Lowell's bitch.
The unions are stopping layoffs everyday. Everyday that goes by that people arent layed off is because on the unions. because if verizon had their way they would be laying off hundreds everyday
They are stopping layoffs, her we go again.
union couldn't stop layoffs
Too bad the CWA is worthless and can't do its job. Otherwise there would be a contract.