More than 45,000 workers in two unions, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), have
gone on strike against Verizon:
The strike involves Verizon telephone field technicians, call center workers and cable installers from Massachusetts to Virginia and is expected to cause some delays in repairing and installing land line phones and Verizon’s FiOS television and Internet service.
Officials with the two unions, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Verizon was demanding far too many concessions—on health coverage, pensions and other matters—and was not backing off many of them.
Verizon executives say far-reaching concessions are needed because of a long-term drop in revenue and profit in its land line telephone business and because of intense competition in television and Internet services.
CWA offers some context on Verizon's financial status:
- 2011 annualized revenues are $108 billion and annualized net profits are $6 billion.
- Verizon Wireless just paid its parent company and Vodaphone a $10 billion dividend.
- Verizon’s top five executives received compensation of $258 million over the past four years.
More to come; this is obviously a story we will be following.