Useful context for the Verizon strike:
The company’s quarterly report released in January found that their profits nearly doubled from the same point last year. Then in April, Bloomberg reported that the company’s profits “more than tripled” after the company began offering services on Apple’s popular iPhone, with net income approaching $1.44 billion[.]
And it's not like they're burdened by high taxes:
Despite earning over $32.5 billion over the last 3 years, Verizon not only paid nothing in corporate income taxes, it actually received nearly $1 billion (the same amount as the concessions they are seeking) in tax benefits from the federal government during that time.
[....]
In fact, if Verizon paid its corporate income tax at the official rate of 35 percent, it would have owed more than $11 billion (rather than negative $1 billion). This alone is enough to avoid the recent cuts in the debt deal to student loan programs.
For its part, Verizon has disputed the claim that it does not pay enough in taxes. Their math however is misleading because it includes taxes that they will owe in the future, not those they actually pay in a given year.
All together now, let's chant the Republican mantra: "But we have to give subsidies and tax breaks to corporations or they won't create good jobs for American workers." Why, without $1 billion in subsidies, Verizon might even eliminate job security for its current workers and try to send jobs overseas. It might demand concessions from workers totally up to $20,000 per family.
You know, all the things it's already doing.
Sign our petition telling Verizon to come to the bargaining table in good faith.