Thread regarding Verizon Communications Inc. layoffs

@jak, you have confirmed it. You are the help. You are not the owner. Yet, you try to dictate to the company as if you were the owner. They can choose to listen to you, take your advice, give you benefits if it provides something for them. But at some point, you get a little too greedy or entitled and then time to step back and be reminded that you are still just the help.

@jlp

Actually it is really nothing like that at all. Why not say Verizon is like a Bakery? A Pet Shop? A bottle of wine? You know... Verizon is kind of like a box of chocolates.

Nice story though.

We built it so we get to dictate our terms forever onward...blah blah blah.

You were paid to do a job. You did it. Now you're paid to maintain it. Quit acting like you have some sort of ownership interest in the company. If you want that, go buy a controlling interest in the company.

The situation is like the home builder who builds a house or community and does all kind of cool things. Then after he gets paid, he is kept on to maintain everything. After a while the owner decides it is costing too much but the builder decides that he can dictate what will be done or else. The owner works with him because he does good work and he likes him. Plus, the implied threats are a little scary. After a while the owner really feels like costs need to go down, so he tries again with the builder who now has a guy with a stick on his side. Plus the builder has arranged for the local government to make it illegal for the owner to outright fire the builder. What a dilemma! Now the builder feels powerful and wants all he can get so he walks off the job to hurt the owner into meeting his demands. But the owner feels strongly that costs need to go down. So we have an impasse. Should the owner give in to the bully? Should the builder give in to the guy who pays his salary? What about the guy with the stick who wants to be paid too and needs to be seen as having had some clout?

This is our present scenario. Is the union entitled to lifetime employment and at their own terms because they may or may not have built the current system? Are they within their rights to dictate to the company what it should do? What about the people who actually own the company? Is it fair for you to buy a house outright but yet the builder retains control over it? How non-sensical is that? How legal is that? Seems like a corruption of the ideals of our great country.

Again with the wireline is dead theory. That theory is based on cancellations of residential POTS lines that were only being used for dial tone, in today's world broadband has replaced dial tone. Broadband that runs on wireline. I assure you wireline is far from dead for example, how did you guys get online at your office before your EWA assignment? Was your office running on somebodies ipad?

-fng Walking out on our employer? The tone from he top = Lowell has been one of disrespect for ALL in wireline. They have not moved and actually have pulled back from small agreements at the table. I have close family member who is at the top of Metlife. They deal with many different companies. they say that VZ is absolutely the worst to deal with. Arrogant, overly demanding, They talk for weeks and come to a partial agreement then VZ says no. Things that they settle on not far from where they actually started at. Just a bunch of A holes to deal with.

I guess not everyone understands (or even cares about) the history of this Union. We have worked this plant for generations, through many different evolutions of the phone company. We built it, you guys are the strangers here. You show up and think you know what is going on, but then you are shocked someone called you a scab? Goes back generations, it isn't going to change. We are one of the last great unions, they want to take us down, but we are not going down without a hell of a fight.

I can fully understand the union fighting to keep the great package they have today. But there has to be flexibility on both sides. Wireline is going away. PERIOD. Times change. My dad owned a TV/ appliance repair shop.Made a nice living. How would he do today? What if he had a job in the steel industry? Would have lost that as well. The big-wigs seem hell bent on getting rid of 1st and 2nd level managers and union folks. They have the means to let this go on for a long time. Get back to the table please.

You may feel you are respectful, but walking out on your employer is not respectful. Your colleagues reveling in customers being harmed because of said action is not respectful. Respect does go two ways. The union is showing its colors once again.

We appreciate the support of lower management, but I will be honest with you, people are still going to call you a scab and blow whistles, and do what they are legally permitted to protest. It just goes with the territory.

Hopefully you can see beyond that like I do when they call us fat, beer bellied, stupid, lazy inbred and worse. I didn't realize you EWA guys all had ripped abs! You should all walk around barechested I am sure we would all be very impressed by your physiques!

I know when people say that stuff, they are really just angry for being put in this situation, same thing goes for the union workers calling you scabs.

I think many of us agree with the unions stance. It has not been a fun past 3 or so yeats for mgmt. Rampant rif s and outsourcing. Thats what makes this ironic is that you guys had the lower mgmt s support. But its been hard to not shift a bit more to the side of the company as we have been demonized by your group. There are bad apples on both sides of the picket line so when I read posts like this I remember that there is also good people on both sides. In IT it takes about a year for you to become something more than an expense. Im working in the CO office and frankly a lot of this work can be completed by a manager with just a week or so of experience. Not all of it, but alot. However, I have a ton of respect for the line workers and I dont doubt that it requires consistent mentoring over a lengthy period. I hope this is resolved soon.

Respect is a two way street. I believe there is some respect in my post, but I don't see any in your reply. Are you an EWA working out in the field?

Respect? You get more than most in your industry yet it's not good enough so you disrespect the customers, other employees, and the company. Where is your respect?