| reply to verizonnet
Re: Verizon 2011 Strike well ty for posting as you just said you know nothing about DSL.
There is a LOT of ways they can get faster DSL I have installed up to 15meg. However the AGING lines have NOTHING to do with distance and PROPER line maintenance. |
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 DC DSLThere's a reason I'm Command.Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
kudos:2
 ·Covad Communicat..
·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to mydsl
said by mydsl:there is a lie being perpetuated by Verizon here.True, people are giving up their old copper land line but union people also work on the wireless network.
This is true, but where is the union 1) Demanding that VZ ensure that as many qualified workers as is feasible and who want to are offered opportunities to transition from copper; and 2) Being up-front with its membership that times have changed and that even with transition opportunities, and regardless of how profitable wireless and fiber are, the reality is a significant contraction of the workforce is going to happen over the course of the next decade.
Wireless and fiber certainly need people to maintain them but, overall, a lot less than the copper plant. Same story as when the CO switches went digital. And long lines before that. And operators and directory assistance. Most of those jobs were no longer necessary. Workers who could be retrained/transitioned to something else stayed, but the ones who couldn't, well...sorry, but that's just how it goes in any industry, not just telcoland.
As for the current state of things...Verizon should absolutely be held to make good on the promises made to its retirees, and its current workforce that has some agreed-upon seniority. However, for those without such seniority and new hires, things just have to be in line with what the rest of the world is doing. Get people into 401(k)s; share the cost of insurance and provide HSAs/FSAs; make differentials something like 10% for "second shift" and 20% for "third shift"; OT based on hours beyond those regularly scheduled for the job's standard weekly commitment; PTO consisting of Federal holidays plus a service-based bucket of annual leave time that includes vacation and sick leave (for example: after 2 years of service, 80 hours of anytime leave, plus 40 hours that only counts toward illness; annual leave accrues at 10 hours every 6 months thereafter up to 160 hours with a max carryover of 200 hours). For jobs that have highly demanding/unpredictable callups, establish rates that are something like 2-3x the base pay plus comp time.
Yeah, changes like this can be a hard pill to swallow, but something like what I'm suggesting doesn't totally screw the workers out of good pay and benefits, and won't hurt the bigwigs enough to have to even worry about not buying the 4th or 5th vacation home.
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"Dance like the photo isn't being tagged; love like you've never been unfriended; and tweet like nobody is following." |
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| Ok - 1st I can tell you why you have probs when calling re DSL: calls go to VENDORS not VZ employees. In fact your problem call goes through about 2-3 vendors before it gets to anyone actually employed by VZ who know what they are doing. The VENDORS pay low wages and have HIGH TURNOVER therefore no one is long term and educated on the product. WE are redoing their work!!! WE are correcting all their mistakes. How about eliminating these middlemen since we are cleaning up their messes constantly???
2nd - VZ is going after retiree benefits. We already only have a 10% shift differential _ period, no 20%. We already only get OT based on over a regular week (40 hours). They are trying to eliminate holidays like Veterans Day. All of what you are suggesting is already in place and they want to give less.... As far as sick time, I don't think 5 sick days is adequate for a 25 yr employee. Asking to contribute to medical without any raise throughout the contract is a pay cut - not only that, they want you to pay for subpar plans... with huge deductibles before anything is even covered... nothing like the plans now - which ok, unless you are the sole breadwinner for your family barely making it as it is, children, who have depended on you for years... and I know many many in that position. They want to be able to move the work whenever and wherever they want - and where that is - is where it is now - contract out of the country - to people who infuriate customers. I don't know anyone with less than 13 years of svc and some have 30, 40, 45 years... so everyone who's given 13+ years is supposed to bend over and give up everything we've bargained for... just because other workers other places get less??? How about maybe the middle class should expect more and stop accepting mediocre and bad treatment, and jobs being sent out of this country to people who aren't even cutting it.
And BTW - they do not care about your dsl and there are not enough techs to handle the workload and they will not hire more. They have stopped caring about the landline customer long ago... sad, but true. |
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DC DSLThere's a reason I'm Command.Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Covad Communicat..
·Verizon Online DSL
| It is up to the rank and file to make the union make the case both to the company and, just as important, to the public. Get the customers riled up and the company will have no choice but to get real. However, the workers also have to stop living in their own "cloud of entitlement" just the same and realize that the world really does suck and they cannot declare themselves immune or impervious to what is going on elsewhere.
Yes, VZ is being greedy by putting its execs, shareholders and Wall Street above its customers and its workers. You aren't going to get anything to change, though, unless all y'all hold your own union leadership every bit as accountable to you as you want for VZ. If they cannot or will not articulate the state of things and re-package it into things the public will give a crap about, you are going to just bone yourselves. Seize the opportunity to make the public your ally now, before the union just rolls-over and screws you for another 5 years.
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"Dance like the photo isn't being tagged; love like you've never been unfriended; and tweet like nobody is following." |
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| reply to mighty mouse
Verizon profited billions of dollars last year. The top 4 executives made 258 million in the last 4 years. At what point does it become greed. If verizon, and the executives made so much money that must means the employees are doing a good job. Why take away pensions, sick time, and lower wages on 45000 employees who helped build this company?... So rich executives can get richer. |
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| reply to Steve99
Re: Verizon 2011 Strike the bottom line is verizon wants to increase their profits to drive up their stock. when the stock goes up all the exec.s benefit mainly because most of their bonuses come in the form of stock options, hence the more profitable the higher the stock the more money they make. they don't care about the workers or their customers and that's the bottom line weather you want to believe it or not. if they cared about the customer they would never come to the table with the attitude they do. they wouldn't continue to cut their work force, etc. the company is very good at blaming the union when in fact it is the company who does not fix the problems the techs tell them about but yet blame the tech when things go wrong. just remember verizon is out for verizon and only verizon they don't care who suffers in the process. a year from now the majority will forget what is going on now but verizon will still being looking for ways to drive that stock up and line those pockets and that's a fact. |
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| reply to talos4
Look, wireless transmission from tower to cellphone is usually less that 5% of the distance the cell call travels. Everything else is land. Cell toweres? built by Union workers. The T1's and T3's from the towers to the network? All built and maintained by Union workers. The company uses the Union Built network, without it the cell phone towers would just sit there useless. And all the money to build the cell phone business came from revenue generated from the landline business. We built that cell business just as surely as we built the rest of this company. We make them a LOT of money. Now, they don't want us to get a slice anymore. Paying our benefits they made 6 billion. They want to strip us of our benefits so they can make 6.5 billion, most of which will go to the Officers in bonusses and stock options. If you can't see how wrong that is, I don't know what else to tell you. |
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| reply to chrisk19938
REALLY??? Old worn out conductors work great with dsl. Especially 26 gauge twisted together with the insulation coming off with voltage on it every time it rains. Wish I worked in your world!!!!! |
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| reply to RonPaul
Re: Verizon 2011 Strike The company is doing very well financially, Fios is on a roll on the fiber line side while asking to take a $20000 pay cut is just not right. I have worked for Verizon for over 20 years and if the CWA went with the current offer I would be forced to leave because I simply could not afford to live in the North East on those wages. NY is tax hell and much more expensive to live in then say Dallas. Verizon has been a great company to work for but this offer is nothing more than McAdam's attempt at union busting. The offer isn't simply about paying into health care because if it was there would not have been a strike. If the pay cut had to do with the financial health of the company then there would not have been a strike. Why isn't anybody up in arms about what CEOs are being paid while they struggle to make ends meet? |
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 PathfinderDazed ConfusedPremium
join:2000-03-26
Mount Vernon, NY
 ·Verizon FiOS
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to Freefreq
said by Freefreq:said by Pathfinder:The strike will last for as long as it takes for Verizon to save enough on wages to pay for the health care package.
That way the union members can brag about how they beat the company and the company will have banked enough savings to laugh about it.
The rest of the issues are just talking points.
If you think the Company saves money when we are out you are sadly mistaken. It cost them money when we are not there..... Some of you people just amaze me for how much you really dont know on how this all works, Taking the union figures of 60,000 to 77,000 per year for employees plus 25,000 for benefits the average is 96,500 per year per employee. That is 1848.66 per week. When you multiply by 45000 workers on strike that equates to $83,189,700 in salaries that Verizon saves each week. It won't take too long for the strike to pay for the health care.
And that is what it's all about. The rest are just talking points. |
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| reply to Freefreq
So you got a raise, it just wasn't as big as you wanted, you call that a concession? Thats called bargaining,something the union is refusing to do today.
Listen, employees who earn far less than a wealthy VZ tech have to pay hundreds every month to their medical plans. Don't tell me your $38.33 an hour wage doesn't make you a wealthy worker, most people are lucky to break $20.00/hr. The free ride on medical benefits is over,welcome to the real world. By the way, there are millions of unemployed just drooling to get a job at VZ, so this strike might be your last. |
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| reply to VZBTech
After 7 weeks, striking workers are able to collect unemployment in NY. |
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| reply to bellhead
Re: Verizon 2011 Strike The reason of the strike is because Verizon will not bargain at all. They put the list of there demands on the table in June. They have not even tried to bargain at all, just take this is there attitude. The workers will glad to go back to work when Verizon does start discussions. In the mean time they force managers to work 6 days a week for 12 hours a day. They also force nonunion workers from other states to do the same or be terminated for not doing so. If you think VZ will start hiring employee you're kidding yourself. They will contract it all out and send jobs overseas. |
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