Business & Tech
Union Members Picket Berkeley Verizon Store
A 5 p.m. solidarity picket at Berkeley's Verizon store drew 30 members of the Communications Workers of America and their supporters.
Chanting “I don’t know but I’ve been told, Verizon’s got a pot of gold,” some 30 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and their allies picketed the downtown Berkeley Verizon Wireless office at 5 p.m. Thursday. A noontime picket at the same location drew about 50 union supporters.
The workers inside the store at 2009 Shattuck Ave. aren’t on strike, explained Sally Venable, president of CWA Local 9415. In fact, Verizon’s west coast wireless workers are not unionized.
This was a solidarity picket. “Fort-five thousand Verizon East workers are on strike,” Venable told Patch, contending that the company made $19.5 billion in profits last year and has paid its top five executives $258 million.
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“Our job is to send shoppers down the street to the only union wireless provider — AT&T wireless,” CWA staffer Libby Sayre said through a bull horn, adding, “Verizon Wireless is dragging 45,000 workers out of the middle class into poverty level jobs.”
The East Coast Verizon contract ended on Aug. 7. Verizon wants the new contract to freeze pensions for current workers and eliminate them for new workers. It wants workers to pay more for health benefits, cut sick days and send more jobs overseas.
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Verizon did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment, but has posted the following on its website:
"Verizon’s proposal includes a highly competitive pay and benefits package near the top of those offered by comparable companies. Verizon is committed to its employees, and promises to negotiate in good faith to reach a final agreement that balances the needs of all parties...Today, most union-represented employees pay nothing for health insurance premiums at Verizon. The company is proposing that its union-represented employees pay a portion of their health care premiums, much like the majority of other Verizon employees...In certain markets, Verizon technicians earn as much as $91,000 a year with overtime and more than $50,000 in benefits.”
Verizon has threatened to cut off striking workers’ health benefits if the strike continues after the end of the month.
The next West Coast picket in solidarity with striking workers will take place on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Verizon store at the El Cerrito Plaza.
