MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Verizon cable and landline workers across seven mostly northeastern states warned Monday they would stage a walk-out at 10:00 GMT if an agreement was not reached for their contracts that expired on August 1, 2015.
"Through our hard work, Verizon is making record profits while our families are left with threats to our jobs and our customers aren't getting the service they need," the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) unions said in Tuesday's press release.
The 39,000 Verizon workers decried "corporate greed" as CEO Lowell McAdam was said to earn 200 times more than the average employee, while five of its top executives made $233 million in the last 5 years.
The repairmen, installers, customer service employees and other service sector workers denounced Verizon’s outsourcing work and moving jobs offshore.
The company disputed workers’ claims that all paths toward negotiating a contract had been exhausted, citing unions’ failure to agree to talks through the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).
The indefinite strike is staged in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Virginia, Massachusetts and dozens locations across other mostly coastal states.
