With no end in sight, the varying group of red-clad picketers at the Verizon location just around the corner from me promises to be a sight I’ll see for awhile – at least until the economic reality of making no money from working begins to rear its ugly head. According to reports like this, the union and company have been far apart in negotiations.
The Communications Workers of America union calls the strike “standing up for middle class jobs.” Their complaint is that an immensely profitable Verizon has “regressive demands” which “would roll back 50 years of bargaining gains.” Too, the union condemns the “Wisconsin-style tactics” employed by the company.
And the union is getting support in its efforts – for example, the Teamsters who represent UPS workers have ordered drivers not to make deliveries to Verizon facilities where they would cross a picket line. (Sounds like an opportunity for FedEx.) The CWA also claims that over 100,000 have signed a petition decrying Verizon’s “corporate greed.”
Yet Verizon states a case that the workers represent a division of the company that’s not profitable and all they are asking is for well-compensated union employees to chip in a little bit on their benefit packages. The company is also accusing the union of misrepresenting the company’s bargaining demands and also several incidents of vandalism and sabotage. (That seems to be par for the Big Labor course, as I’ll explain later.)
In essence, the conflict boils down to this: Verizon is trying to cut costs in a division that’s on its way to obsolescence. No longer are Americans tied to a phone line as more and more households have eschewed a landline phone for cellular service. Nor does Verizon even have the monopoly on landline service as they used to because cable providers and others have made these services available. Unfortunately for the Verizon employees affected by the strike, their business will eventually go the route of the horse and buggy just as that of the telephone operator went away years ago when direct-dial phones became available.
The other irksome item within the union’s argument is playing that old class envy card. Their claim that the “very profitable company has paid its top five executives more than $258 million over the past four years” doesn’t address how these corporate leaders were paid. Most likely much of the compensation came in the form of stock options granted because the company was “very profitable” – would they prefer these executives lost millions of dollars instead? (By the way, that $258 million number works out to $1433.33 per striking employee per year. Would the strikers accept such a measly pay raise on even a $60,000 salary, let alone upwards of $90,000?)
Certainly that sounds like a huge amount of compensation for these executives – after all, who wouldn’t want a gig where they made an average of $12 million per year? But then again, would you like the hard work and long hours these people put in on their way up the corporate ladder? I doubt these positions were handed to them, and they certainly require more thought and skill in a number of areas than the average line worker would be able to exhibit. A failure on a line worker’s part may mean a few hundred customers are inconvenienced until someone can fix the issue. A CEO’s screwup could drive the entire company to bankruptcy and cost thousands of workers their jobs – so let’s get a sense of proportion here.
It seems to me the unions are becoming more and more desperate as they realize their hold on power is slipping away. Thus far Verizon has managed to keep their service going – albeit at a somewhat slower pace – and as the strike drags on Verizon’s management may find that they can do without some of these striking employees on a more permanent basis. Surely above all that’s what the CWA is afraid of, and the sabotage now may lead to more violent attacks later.
While it’s not related to the Verizon strike, consider an event which happened near my old hometown where a non-union electrical contractor was wounded in an attack – presumably by a union electrician or supporter. (Having “SCAB” spraypainted on the business owner’s vehicle would be my first clue.) There’s no question Toledo is a rough-and-tumble union town and has been for decades; why do you think I’ve called them “union thugs” before? I know how they operate so as soon as I saw the “Ohio business owner” blurb for the story I figured it was from Toledo.
Still, the idea that someone would actually attempt to gun down a business owner who was protecting his property appears to me to mean the stakes are deadly high in Big Labor’s case. After all, consider the unions had the federal government’s apparatus lock, stock, and barrel for a two-year period but couldn’t get everything they wanted because a number of people said “no, you cannot have card check” and “yes, corporations have the same right to political speech as unions do.” That had to hurt, even if they picked up an automaker or two in the process.
Now does this mean the Verizon strike will turn deadly? I pray not, as cooler heads on both sides need to prevail.
But those walking the picket line around the corner from me have to know they’re whistling past an economic graveyard because in this day and age workers need to be flexible and the ball is usually in the company’s court. In all honesty, they’re only being asked to work under the same rules most of the rest of us already do and as such be thankful they have a good job.
Bear in mind profits are by no means permanent, nor are corporations. Too often a union has won the small battles of getting workers raises and better benefits only to lose the war when the company closes shop because it can’t compete anymore. There’s always the likelihood that in ten years Verizon may be a distant memory, another casualty of an ever-changing world. No work stoppage can ignore that fact.