AllThingsD » Communications Workers of America

Verizon Employees to Return to Work

Greg Bensinger — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 20:45:48 +0000

About 45,000 Verizon Communications Inc. workers agreed to return to work Tuesday, under a previous contract, after striking to protest benefits cuts that the telecommunications giant sought to offset declining sales in its traditional wireline business.

The old contract will go back into effect Tuesday, while negotiators continue to work towards a new resolution, said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, which represents about 35,000 Verizon employees. He said workers were willing to return because the company seemed ready to negotiate.

“The strike was about the process. We are now convinced that a change to the process is possible,” Mr. Cohen said. “The risk of going back to work while negotiating this is worth it to us.” He said talks would resume late next week.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

A Smaller Strike at Verizon Wireless

Greg Bensinger — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:01:10 +0000

Verizon Communications Inc.’s argument to striking wireline workers is they have to accept deep cuts to benefits to help offset falling sales at its traditional phone business, but 70 striking union members are mounting a different fight—they work for the company’s highly profitable wireless unit.

While most of the 45,000 Verizon workers who were on strike for a fourth day Wednesday are employed by the company’s land-line business, a tiny portion—less than 0.2%—are part of its Verizon Wireless operations, a legacy from a merger 15 years ago. These employees, who are the only unionized workers at the wireless arm, are part of the striking Communications Workers of America union but are negotiating separately with the company.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

If Speed Matters, Why Is American Broadband So Slow?

Arik Hesseldahl — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:57:11 +0000

The Communications Workers of America have completed their latest survey of broadband connections in the U.S., and if the point wasn’t already well-established, then they’re here to remind you: Broadband connections in America are slow and service availability is lousy or non-existent in many areas, and that’s leaving a lot of people–millions actually–at a severe educational, economic and cultural disadvantage.

Here are a few highlights:

Half of all U.S. residential broadband connections fall below the minimum speed established by the Federal Communications Commission of four megabits per second down and one megabit up. That definition of what constitutes “broadband” is however all of six months old.
The median download speed was three megabits per second and 595 kilobits up, and these have only improved a little bit since the 2009 survey. At the rate the U.S. is going it will take 60 years to catch up with South Korea, where broadband network speeds are legendary, averaging 34 megabits per second.
Only one percent of broadband connections in the U.S. run at 50 megabits per second down and 20 up, meeting the FCC’s goal for the year 2015.

The report points out a few other findings from the FCC’s research: As many as 100 million people–roughly one in three–don’t have access to broadband at home, and of those, 24 million can’t get it if they want it, usually because they live on the wrong side of a seemingly arbitrary line on some map. Others say it’s too expensive or that they simply don’t know how to use it.

The 68-page report (PDF) goes on to break down the broadband situation in each state and a few U.S. territories.

The CWA released the report at a press conference in Washington, D.C., today, and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski was on hand to lend his support and talk about his plans to reform the Universal Service Fund so that besides funding telephone service in rural areas, which was the reason it was created, it can be used to help fund broadband deployments in markets where service is limited for one reason or another. He also talked about getting some of the hurdles out of the way of private companies, so that when they choose to build infrastructure they can move fast. Simply cutting red tape can reduce the deployment costs by 40 percent.

Below is a grab of the CWA’s speed map of the U.S. (Click on it to zoom in.)

Update: And here’s a video of today’s press conference at the National Press Club. Genachowski is the second speaker.

Sirius XM Unveils SkyDock for iPhone

John Paczkowski — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:00:52 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

The Median U.S. Broadband Speed? South Korea’s Divided by Four.

John Paczkowski — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:41:53 +0000

In South Korea, the average broadband download speed is 20.4 megabits per second. In Japan, it is 15.8 mbps. In Sweden, it’s 12.8 mbps. In The Netherlands, it’s 11 mbps.

And in the United States, the country that invented the Internet? It’s 5.1.

This according to a new study by the Communications Workers of America, which found that broadband speeds in the States are among the slowest of the 29 countries it surveyed. “Between 2007 and 2009, the average download speed in the United States has increased by only 1.6 megabits per second (mbps), from 3.5 mbps in 2007 to 5.1 mbps in 2009,” the CWA explains in its report. “At this rate, it will take the United States 15 years to catch up with current Internet speeds in South Korea, the country with the fastest average Internet connections.”

And no wonder: 18 percent of Internet connections in the States that the CWA surveyed revealed download speeds slower than 768 kilobits per second, which doesn’t even qualify as basic broadband according to the Federal Communications Commission’s definition.

That may soon change, now that the country has adopted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which includes a provision for a national broadband plan by spring of 2010 and grants of $7.2 billion to bring high-speed Internet to the hinterlands. But it will be slow going. It’s a long way from 5.1 mbps to 20.4.

Best Buy Lands iPhone Deal

John Paczkowski — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:00:12 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

The Median U.S. Broadband Speed? Finland's Divided by 10.

John Paczkowski — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:59:11 +0000

An estimated 15 percent of Americans still use dial-up to connect to the Internet. And they might as well. Because according to a new study by the Communication Workers of America, the typical real-time Internet connection speed in the United States isn’t that much faster. CWA’s Speed Matters survey found the median download speed in the U.S. to be a mortifying 2.35 megabits per second.

Pathetic. In Japan the median download speed is 63.60Mbps. In South Korea it’s 49 mbps. For crying out loud, in Finland it’s 21.7Mbps.

How is it that the median download speed of the country that invented the Internet is this abysmal? No wonder it’s fallen to 15th place among industrialized nations in the percent of the population subscribing to broadband. No wonder broadband adoption slipped to a seven-year low in the second quarter of 2008.

The Median U.S. Broadband Speed? Finland's Divided by 10.

John Paczkowski — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:59:11 +0000

Pathetic. In Japan the median download speed is 63.60Mbps. In South Korea it’s 49 mbps. For crying out loud, in Finland it’s 21.7Mbps.

Verizon: No Strike; Talks Continue With CWA, IBEW

Eric Savitz — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:45:52 +0000

Negotiations between Verizon (VZ) and unions representing 65,000 employees continued past the Saturday midnight contract expiration over the weekend, but union officials agreed not to call a strike while talks extended.

An update from the Communications Workers of America this morning said simply that “Negotiations are continuing today after ending about 2 a.m. this morning. Updates will be provided as developments warrant.”

Read the rest of this post