Verizon workers on strike throughout region

Verizon landline customers throughout the Northeast could experience slow customer telephone services if a strike by technicians stretches out for an extended period.

“We’re on strike because our contract has expired, and we’re fighting to keep what we have. The company wants us to give back what we’ve fought 20 to 30 years to get,” said Mark Withers, a Verizon technician.

Aug. 9 marked the third day Withers and fellow Verizon technicians picketed in front of a company office on Route 9 east of Five Points after their contract expired at midnight Aug. 6.

“We’re just getting started,” Withers said about the strike that has idled 45,000 Verizon employees, mostly in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, Virginia and West Virginia.

Withers has been a Verizon systems technician for 25 years, installing, maintaining and servicing telephone data circuits and dial-tone service for large businesses throughout southern Delaware.

Locally, Withers and his coworkers are members of Communication Workers of America Local 1310.

The union had been bargaining with Verizon management for several months, but every major concession demand – more than 100 in all – remained unresolved and still on the table

Withers said strikers are not only fighting for themselves but also for middle-class jobs. Withers said they’re also fighting against corporate greed.

“Verizon last year made in excess of $19 billion after they paid their bills. They paid zero dollars in taxes,” he said.

He said among other things, the company is seeking changes in medical insurance coverage that would adversely affect workers.

However, Lee Gierczynski, Verizon Delaware spokesman, said the company is just trying to keep pace with changing times.

“I don’t think you could find anyone who would say the wired-line telephone business is the same as it was 20 to 30 years ago. Broadband (wireless) has transformed the communication business and has profoundly affected the landline business,” Gierczynski said.

He said Verizon served 47 million phone landline customers five years ago, and today the company serves 25 million. “That’s continuing to decline at a rate of about 8 percent a year,” Gierczynski said. He said today, more than one of four households is wireless only.

“Telecommunications is rapidly changing, and you need to acknowledge change and adapt quickly if you want to survive,” Gierczynski said.

He said a Verizon technician’s average salary is about $75,000 a year with a benefit package worth about $50,000 a year. “When we reach a new contract, these employees will continue to receive competitive pay and benefits,” Gierczynski said. He said the company is not seeking cuts in employee base wages.

He said a majority of the company’s employees contribute something to the costs of providing health insurance, but union employees pay nothing for it. Gierczynski said the company is proposing that union employees also contribute something to the ever-rising cost of healthcare.

He said the company has been preparing for the possibility of a strike for months and has been training management employees to handle critical jobs such as network repairs, customer service and billing.

“As this work stoppage continues, customers may encounter longer hold times and longer wait times for repair service,” Gierczynski said.

But Withers said putting managers in the field to do the job of technicians isn’t going to work.

“They’re understaffed, under-equipped and have very little experience,” he said.

Withers said Verizon has an office in just about every town in the area where dial tones originate and where telephone switch equipment is based. He said there are work centers in Lewes, Ocean View, Milford and Seaford.

Withers said the union has a strike fund but it wouldn’t be activated until workers have been out for three weeks. “It’s very minimal pay. It’s just enough to help us stay going,” he said.

Based on revenue, Verizon ranks 16th on this year’s Fortune 500 Magazine listing of the country’s top companies. AT&T ranks 12th and Comcast ranks 66th.

Strikers said the company escapes taxes through loopholes and by selling some of its territory. They said Verizon sold assets in six to eight north-central states, selling line access and writing it off.

Workers also say the company’s executive managers are overpaid. The chief operating officer is paid $2.2 million a year, which is about $55,000 a day.

“When a company makes the kind of money they make, we don’t see any reason why we have to give anything back,” Withers said.