SEVEN WIRELESS STORES
Picket with Verizon Strikers
Visit StandUpToVerizon.com to find picket and rally locations near you.
Workers at seven Verizon Wireless stores are on an unfair labor practice strike over the August firing of union activist Bianca Cunningham.
“This is my first strike—and there’s a lot more support than I expected,” said sales rep Mike Tisei. Workers at his store in Everett, Massachusetts, and at six stores in Brooklyn voted to join CWA in 2014. Two years later, they’re still without a first contract.
“We go in with high hopes, but it’s kind of like talking to a brick wall,” said bargaining team member Tatiana Hill, a sales rep in Brooklyn. One of the union’s top priorities is to win just-cause protection, to make workers less dependent on managers’ whims.
Since she started five years ago, Hill says, her workload has increased dramatically. “We used to have technicians in the store, and we had sales and customer service,” she said. “Now, literally, sales reps do every single thing.”
Despite their increased responsibilities, Wireless workers’ commission checks have generally gone down, while base pay raises have been insubstantial. It takes 17 years to reach the top pay rate.
Though many of her co-workers have worked at Verizon Wireless for five years or more, “the majority of Brooklyn [employees] live with their parents or someone else,” Hill said. “We don’t want to live at home with our parents and families, but you can’t afford to pay rent on those kind of salaries.”
“I’d love to have a house,” said Tisei, “but if my paycheck’s going to drop, I can’t get one. Not with the inconsistencies of the checks.”
A version of this article appeared in Labor Notes #446, May 2016. Don't miss an issue, subscribe today.