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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.

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Verizon, Union Far Apart in Talks

Greg Bensinger — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 07:00:02 +0000

As a contract with Verizon Communications Inc.’s unionized workers is set to expire this Saturday at midnight, the two sides remain far apart, potentially setting the stage for the first strike in 11 years as Verizon seeks some of the biggest concessions in years from its unions.

CWA Local 1103 President Joseph Barca, who represents about 1,000 Verizon workers near Port Chester, N.Y., said he believes workers are headed for a strike unless there is a major change in the tone of negotiations.

“I don’t remember us ever being this far apart,” said Mr. Barca, a 42-year veteran of the company. “This feels a lot like 2000 and that was terrible.” In 2000, the last time workers went on strike, more than 86,000 unionized telecom workers walked off the job for 18 days.

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Labor Board Backs Worker Who Criticized on Facebook

Melanie Trottman — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 13:00:50 +0000

The National Labor Relations Board is taking a stand on employees’ rights to post negative comments about supervisors on social networking sites, alleging that a company illegally fired a worker for criticizing her boss on Facebook. The agency disclosed the complaint last week against ambulance service American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc.

The NLRB, an independent federal agency that settles disputes between private-sector employers and employees, said the supervisor questioned the employee about a customer complaint on her work but that the employer illegally denied her representation from her union during the probe. The employee later posted the negative remark about the supervisor on her personal Facebook page from her home computer.

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New York Times Strikes Deal With Boston Globe's Holdout Union

Peter Kafka — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:00:50 +0000

The Boston Globe can keep printing.

The New York Times Co., which owns the Globe, has reached an agreement with the Boston Newspaper Guild. The Guild, which represents 600 editorial employees at the paper, was the one union at the Globe that had yet to agree to concessions the Times said it needed to avoid a shutdown.

The Globe reports that the deal, reached overnight, includes “a substantial pay cut, unpaid furloughs, and modifications to the lifetime job guarantee provisions that protect almost 200 employees.”

On Tuesday night, the New York Times Co. (NYT) had presented a “last best offer” to cut wages by 23 percent in order to save $10 million a year at the Globe, which it says was on track to lose $85 million this year. The union had countered with what was essentially a five percent cut.

Related news: Discount retailer, Filene’s Basement, once a mainstay Globe advertiser, filed for Chapter 11 this week.

[Image credit: Tony the Misfit]

AT&T Workers Create “Ready to Strike” Ringtone

Andrew LaVallee — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:32:18 +0000

AT&T and the union representing its workers are still in contract talks, but workers have published a song, with accompanying ringtone, called “Ready to Strike,” just in case.

The song’s pro-labor lyrics include “Get ready to strike, get ready to walk the line” and “Protect my health care, don’t lower my wages/Realize, recognize, mobilize, stay alive” and even a shout-out to technicians who support U-verse, AT&T’s TV service.

It was co-written by Ray and Rachael Rodriguez, AT&T (T) employees who are active in the Communications Workers of America Local 6222, as well as Riley Wallace, a Toronto hip-hop artist whose stage name is Special.

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IBM Layoffs: 1,674 and Counting

John Paczkowski — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:00:48 +0000

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This Is Your Captain Speaking: Will the Gentleman in Seat 21A Please Stop Surfing Porn

John Paczkowski — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:33:03 +0000

Now that air-to-ground broadband has added Internet porn to American Airlines’ in-flight entertainment offerings, the company’s flight attendants are asking that it be taken off. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents 19,000 AA employees, is urging the airline to block access to Web content it feels is family-unfriendly.

“We’ve heard a lot of complaints from flight attendants and passengers,” union spokesman David Roscow told Bloomberg, though he didn’t offer up any actual incidents as proof. Which isn’t all that surprising, really. After all, travelers have been able to bring pornography on flights for as long as there have been commercial airlines. For crying out loud, airport gift shops and newsstands sell porn. But it’s rarely a problem in-flight because … well, who wants to be the creepy porn guy in seat 21A? And if you don’t mind being that guy and your presence troubles other passengers, your airline obviously have ways of managing that. Said American Airlines (AMR) spokesperson Tim Smith:

Our policy is to provide Wi-Fi capabilities the way customers are most familiar using [them] at home, office, coffee shops and on the road–with unfiltered connections that allow customers to get what they need, when they need it. While it does provide a new access point for information and content, customers viewing inappropriate material on-board a flight is not a new scenario for our crews who have always managed this issue with great success.”