VZ contract

[lurch]

Anyone here going to be affected IF the contract is not going to be signed?

What happens to an employee when the union goes on strike?

Does the union pay you when you are out?

I have a friend who works for VZ who is in the union but is too pissed to discuss the topic.

I am not trying to start a discussion about union vs non union but just looking for some information on what is going on as I have a few friends who will be affected.

[reelecstasy]

Picket duty first 7 days for your standard shift
NO, you do not get paid-therefore neither do your bills
After 1 month you lose your health insurance (scares me almost as much as no pay)

IBEW-Local 2222

[Scaup]

My neighbor said she was told she could picket 8 hours a day for $200 a week

[reelecstasy]

Well, the last time we walked I did not get paid..Maybe her Local has a phat strike fund or something..I dunno

[Scaup]

Originally Posted by reelecstasy

Well, the last time we walked I did not get paid..Maybe her Local has a phat strike fund or something..I dunno

You got me - she is sick over it - single mother and all

[reelecstasy]

Believe me, I feel for her...
Saturday night at midnight we find out.... fingers and toes are crossed..

I actually am applying for the Linemans Apprenticeship program, time to make a move.....I would much rather have my job at VZ when I make the transition, but sometimes the cards don't fall that way.

[gone fishin]

VZ ??? Maybe I am out of the loop or spending too much time fishin, ....

[Fishin' Blues]

There's virtually no news or rumors coming out of the negotiations. I don't know what to think about it. In years past it seemed like you kind of knew what was going to happen, this one is weird. Hopefully it works out by Saturday night.

[reelecstasy]

Originally Posted by gone fishin

VZ ??? Maybe I am out of the loop or spending too much time fishin, ....

VZ= Verizon...

[saltfly]

Originally Posted by Scaup

My neighbor said she was told she could picket 8 hours a day for $200 a week

I spent 34yrs[1968-2002] and many picket lines.there is no strike fund the only way to picket and get "paid" was to picket for someone elses tour and "work it out" between you.they're still talking,that's good.

[Adam_777]

This sucks !Why do the companies have to wait until last minute ? The company I work at was merging two shops, making one out of a non and a Union shop.They wanted us out so they could have more control over everything.They love the moochers and the suckups with no real skills.They hired more guys in the other shop and trimmed ours down.They brought it to the labor board and asked for a vote.Our BA went and postponed the vote and brought the stacking and favoring to the labor boards attention.We worked on a couple guys and the company new they were turning and fired.We had majority and the Union stayed.This is Penske Truck Leasing in Cranston RI .Local 255 serviceworkers USWU.They'll try anything to get the union out and pay unskilled and undertrained people.Give em Hell !I still do.

[reelecstasy]

[lurch]

Originally Posted by Adam_777

This sucks !Why do the companies have to wait until last minute ? The company I work at was merging two shops, making one out of a non and a Union shop.They wanted us out so they could have more control over everything.They love the moochers and the suckups with no real skills.They hired more guys in the other shop and trimmed ours down.They brought it to the labor board and asked for a vote.Our BA went and postponed the vote and brought the stacking and favoring to the labor boards attention.We worked on a couple guys and the company new they were turning and fired.We had majority and the Union stayed.This is Penske Truck Leasing in Cranston RI .Local 255 serviceworkers USWU.They'll try anything to get the union out and pay unskilled and undertrained people.Give em Hell !I still do.

Why do you blame the company? Maybe it is the Union who will not accept what the company has to offer? If the Union would negotiate with companies so that BOTH parties are happy then maybe there would be less strikes....just a thought

[Raider Ronnie]

Unions suck !!!

[Swimmer]

It takes mucho balls to strike, and then living with the decision afterwards. I remember some friends years ago during a long one at VZ, when the union was extremely powerful. I asked this female friend afterward if she felt good about it now that it was over. Its the closest I ever came to getting my head taken off with just words.

[Striperknight]

No one wins in a strike.

[Adam_777]

Originally Posted by lurch

Why do you blame the company? Maybe it is the Union who will not accept what the company has to offer? If the Union would negotiate with companies so that BOTH parties are happy then maybe there would be less strikes....just a thought

Not in my case.We just signed a contract last year.No problems in negotiating a contract.It was a local management problem.The trail runs deep and the merge of the two shops was in the making for at least 3-4 years.Most of the non-union employees have been there under 3 years.They were hired for short money and given large pay raises to foil them because the company knew they would have to bring them to our pay scale which was always 4-5 dollars/hr more.So the new crew saw fat pay raises and pizza party's every friday.The Union shop that I've been in going on 11yrs has guys from 24 down to 5 yrs being the lowest.We got the work that the non union guys couldn't do.Pretty much anything besides an oil change.When they saw our contract they saw the pay raises and were convinced they do better on their own.Just one instance of the company trying to pull the blinders over these guys eyes.There's more but I don't want to bore you.

[Adam_777]

Originally Posted by Raider Ronnie

Unions suck !!!

Please explain !

I've seen people complain about banks repossesing their cars without them being notified only after missing 2 payments.Some people have negative experiences with the local union for legit reasons also.Just interested to hear your reasoning for your comment.Heck I have a few problems with the one I'm a member of .Not soo bad that I am prejudice against all Unions.

[saltfly]

Originally Posted by Raider Ronnie

Unions suck !!!

your painting with a broad brush

[reelecstasy]

Originally Posted by lurch

Why do you blame the company? Maybe it is the Union who will not accept what the company has to offer? If the Union would negotiate with companies so that BOTH parties are happy then maybe there would be less strikes....just a thought

If you actually knew what the company is looking for as far as cuts in our benefits, taking insurance away from retires, canceling pensions for anyone retiring after 2009, wanting us to pay more for our health insurance are just a few off the top of the list. Each and every point was a take away.
Meanwhile;
Verizon 2007 Revenue Tops $93.5B

Telecom heavyweight Verizon Communications reported its 2007 year-end and fourth quarter earnings this morning. The company's 2007 revenues were $93.5 billion, an increase of $5.3 billion over 2006. As usual, the firm's wireless unit helped the company meet its fourth quarter and year-end expectations with its robust growth.

Fierce reporters have broken down the company's fourth quarter results and what they mean to each market segment: wireless, mobile content, IPTV and telecom.

Here are the stories:

Verizon net income up 12% on wireless, FiOS
Wireless and FiOS broadband efforts again proved to be the growth engines for Verizon Communications, as the telco posted second quarter earnings marked by a 12 percent boost in profit over last Read more...
Verizon says it'll raise FiOS prices again
Verizon's FiOS users can expect to pay a little more, the company said during its earnings call yesterday. FiOS broadband has seen steady Read more...
Verizon posts 263K TV customer boost
Verizon Communications this week reported a 9.8% increase in profit for the first quarter of 2008. Verizon said net income totaled $1.64 billion, with revenue rising about 5.5%.

I wont bore you with more, but if you are curious.. http://www.fiercetelecom.com/special...-2007-earnings

All this revenue was gained and carried on the back of the employees. For VZ to turn around at the end of this contract and submit their proposals of take aways etc is disgusting to me.
THAT is why you need a Union......Sometimes when the game is this big with so much money at stake you NEED a union, we are talking about 65,000 union members and their families...

"Verizon, who has been screwing it's wireless and business workers who want to join unions, who has taken down a veterans flag which was flown over Iraq and Afghanistan from it's Verizon business office, and has allowed subcontractors who enslaved undocumented workers to do Verizons work, is playing hard ball with it's 65,000 union workers on the East Coast, but these workers have been preemptive and are geared to storm........"

Oops, forgot to add Ivan Seidenberg's pay (CEO) Total compensation
$20,277,512, not a bad year, wonder what he has to pay for his health insurance

[lurch]

It is funny that every VZ person I talk to ALWAYS mentions the CEO's salary and the high profits that VZ make during contract time.

Does the Union think that the profits should be divided by the 65K employees??

Do the folks who climb poles actually think that they deserve to have a salary and benefits package close to what a CEO or upper management have??

So with that mentality, a person who empties trash and works for a trash emptying company that makes 10Billion in profit should make 200K$ / year and have all of the benefits that their CEO should have because they are very profitable?

The VZ wireless employees who sell cell phone behind a desk should be making more than 8-15$ an hour? What skills do they have that would warrant a 70K/year job?

I know you are going to say that the employees should be making a "decent wage", and they should but not when they have a low level job. Sorry but most of the VZ workers who are laborers do not deserve to make the same salary or have the same benefits package as management even if the company had a 10 trillion dollar profit.

[Mike P]

VZ Wireless is non-union to start with. Maybe that's why they're only making $8-$15 an hour.

[lurch]

Originally Posted by Mike P

VZ Wireless is non-union to start with. Maybe that's why they're only making $8-$15 an hour.

So are you saying that they are underpaid for their skill set? IMO they have ZERO skills and should not be paid like they have a valuable skill set like the wireless engineers who design the network.

[stripersnipr]

I have a friend who is a sales rep for VW. She does very well and is very skilled.

[Adam_777]

The company is making money hand over fist still they want to cut existing benefits and pensions.That's bogus no matter how you look at it.Hashing out a new contract for a big company like that is like going to war.Proposals are overcompensated so they can reach the happy medium easier.In the end the union won't stand for most of that crap.If there was no Union it would be more like the states out west.Low wages,no benefits,low skill levels,barely enough hours for full time work and mostly illegals working off the books for less than minimum wage.Sad people don't see the big picture.More people should support the Unions of today rather than saying they are a thing of the past.The Unions are here still and they're still strong.

[lurch]

Originally Posted by Adam_777

The company is making money hand over fist still they want to cut existing benefits and pensions.That's bogus no matter how you look at it.Hashing out a new contract for a big company like that is like going to war.Proposals are overcompensated so they can reach the happy medium easier.In the end the union won't stand for most of that crap.If there was no Union it would be more like the states out west.Low wages,no benefits,low skill levels,barely enough hours for full time work and mostly illegals working off the books for less than minimum wage.Sad people don't see the big picture.More people should support the Unions of today rather than saying they are a thing of the past.The Unions are here still and they're still strong.

Like I said earlier, why do members of the union think they should be paid more with salary and benefits when the company is making massive profits? If a worker has a low end job they should not be making high end salary and benefits.

Why do folks in the union think that they are superior skilled workers...any monkey can climb poles and tone out wires (did it for 10 years)?? There are so many companies that do exceptional work and are not organized.

What type of better training does the union provide that a non union worker would not receive? Comcast provides high level training for all of their workers without a union contract.

When the workers voted in the union at the Comcast Needham facility where was the union when it came time to negotiate the better salary and benefits that were promised?? The "strong" IBEW wanted nothing to do with the members letting those workers rot away while Comcast took care of the non Union employees time and time again with pay increases based upon the workers performance and industry increases....the union was voted out after the "contract" expired. With the mess the Union created and left behind in Needham there will NEVER be a Union voted in at Comcast in Mass....so much for the Union taking care of the workers.

Dont get me wrong I am trying to understand why the Union thinks they are better. I would not be a high level engineer for my company if it was not for the non Union skills that Comcast provided during my career there.

[lurch]

Originally Posted by Adam_777

The company is making money hand over fist still they want to cut existing benefits and pensions.That's bogus no matter how you look at it.Hashing out a new contract for a big company like that is like going to war.Proposals are overcompensated so they can reach the happy medium easier.In the end the union won't stand for most of that crap.If there was no Union it would be more like the states out west.Low wages,no benefits,low skill levels,barely enough hours for full time work and mostly illegals working off the books for less than minimum wage.Sad people don't see the big picture.More people should support the Unions of today rather than saying they are a thing of the past.The Unions are here still and they're still strong.

Why do folks in the union think that they are superior skilled workers...any monkey can climb poles and tone out wires (did it for 10 years)?? There are so many companies that do exceptional work and are not organized.

What type of better training does the union provide that a non union worker would not receive? Comcast provides high level training for all of their workers without a union contract.

When the workers voted in the union at the Comcast Needham facility where was the union when it came time to negotiate the better salary and benefits that were promised?? The "strong" IBEW wanted nothing to do with the members letting those workers rot away while Comcast took care of the non Union employees time and time again with pay increases based upon the workers performance and industry increases....the union was voted out after the "contract" expired. With the mess the Union created and left behind in Needham there will NEVER be a Union voted in at Comcast in Mass....so much for the Union taking care of the workers.

[TheSpecialist]

Lurch you sound like a disgruntled former phone guy.
Let me tell you about the CATV industry since I worked it for 10 years. They work you like dogs, don't care about your safety, and treat you like a 5 year old. I now work for Verizon, for the last 13 years. It is like apples and oranges my friend. FIOS work is not toning out a pair of wires, it requires many different skill sets. You need to know how to splice fiber, run wire, networking, catv etc.

Just to prove it, VZ bitched and moaned they were getting the ass kicked by Concast cheap labor. So they heavily recruited a crapload of them. The company thought these guys were gonna come in and work circles around us. Wrong, after 8 months on the job they were all threatend with termination for low productivity, half of them had damage complaints every other day. Well they all got let go.

Now let me tell you the reason I deserve a raise, and record profits have nothing to do with it.
1. I do a quality job every day, no matter if your house is a palace, or a $hithole.
2. When I leave, your fios service works, you know how to use it, and are very happy with the service you recieved.
3. See above about former concast workers, no not any chimp can do my job
4. The cost of living is out of control, food, oil, gasoline is through the roof, college cost are rising every year.
5. Without my union brothers and sisters this company would'nt be worth %$%$%$%$, and the company knows it or they would have been no progress sat night, and we would be picketing now, we make the profits not the other way around we are not asking for a simple split across the board of the companies profit, we are asking for a decent living wage, and to keep our health benefits, and pensions status quo.

INstead of being pissed at us, why don't you get pissed at your crappy employer.

BTW if Concast does'nt unionize thats something those people will have to live with, I know I will still sleep fine at night.

Union Steward
IBEW Local 2222
Hang Tough

[Fishin' Blues]

I have 21 years with New England Telephone/NYNEX/Bell Atlantic/Verizon and have been a proud member of IBEW 2222 & 2322 for the duration. I've done everything from hanging drops, splicing copper and fiber optic cables to doing software upgrades on high end fiber optic electronics. T1's, T3's, ISDN, Lottery circuits, burglar alarms, you name it.

If you think we just climb poles and tone out wires, you have no idea what you're talking about. Plain and simple.

[lurch]

Originally Posted by TheSpecialist

Lurch you sound like a disgruntled former phone guy.
Let me tell you about the CATV industry since I worked it for 10 years. They work you like dogs, don't care about your safety, and treat you like a 5 year old. I now work for Verizon, for the last 13 years. It is like apples and oranges my friend. FIOS work is not toning out a pair of wires, it requires many different skill sets. You need to know how to splice fiber, run wire, networking, catv etc.

Just to prove it, VZ bitched and moaned they were getting the ass kicked by Concast cheap labor. So they heavily recruited a crapload of them. The company thought these guys were gonna come in and work circles around us. Wrong, after 8 months on the job they were all threatend with termination for low productivity, half of them had damage complaints every other day. Well they all got let go.

Now let me tell you the reason I deserve a raise, and record profits have nothing to do with it.
1. I do a quality job every day, no matter if your house is a palace, or a $hithole.
2. When I leave, your fios service works, you know how to use it, and are very happy with the service you recieved.
3. See above about former concast workers, no not any chimp can do my job
4. The cost of living is out of control, food, oil, gasoline is through the roof, college cost are rising every year.
5. Without my union brothers and sisters this company would'nt be worth %$%$%$%$, and the company knows it or they would have been no progress sat night, and we would be picketing now, we make the profits not the other way around we are not asking for a simple split across the board of the companies profit, we are asking for a decent living wage, and to keep our health benefits, and pensions status quo.

INstead of being pissed at us, why don't you get pissed at your crappy employer.

BTW if Concast does'nt unionize thats something those people will have to live with, I know I will still sleep fine at night.

Union Steward
IBEW Local 2222
Hang Tough

I am not a pissed off Phone guy but did work for Comcast for 11 years. I started off as an installer and worked my way through many types of jobs in my career at Comcast. I was one of the very first group of employees who did the cable modem project around Boston so we had to understand voice, video and data services in 1995'. I am very proud of the work that I did there and know that at EVERY job I completed I gave 100%. I did my own install at my house I bought in 97' and I have never needed a service call or lost service on my cable modem....why because the install was done properly and designed to support the return cable plant.

I was one of those employees who did high quality work as well and was paid VERY well while there. When I left 10 years ago my NON UNION salary was just below 60K/year(not bad for a 25 year old kid!). I left the company because I was offered a job at Nortel because of my cable modem / networking skill set that the non Union company provided. Now because of that cable modem skill set I am a highly paid high level network engineer for Juniper Networks with my salary more than doubling since I left Comcast . I LOVE MY JOB AND THE COMPANY I WORK FOR!!

We all know that there are slackers who work for both companies so do not say that every VZ worker does high quality work. One of the reasons why my friend who works for VZ is so pissed is because of the high percentage of slackers in his garage but because of the Union there is nothing VZ can do about it.

The workers from Comcast who left to go to VZ are the slackers that Comcast does not want. Believe me we had slackers leave to go to RCN and we were happy to get rid of them. Comcast retains their best employees because when I worked there they offered me more money to stay.....that would never happen at VZ.

With Comcast we had the ability to get rid of employees who were slackers but does VZ have that same option? NO as long as they do not break any rules they stay forever! With the slackers being around they are preventing you from being making a higher salary.

I do agree that you need a pay raise BUT do the slackers?

If the union is so good why are there slackers? IMO unions promote slacker workers because they are protected.

Why doesnt the union get rid of the slackers in my friends garage?

Why should VZ pay these slacker employees a higher wage and better benefits?

Since VZ are paying 100% of your health care costs and with that cost increasing every year maybe VZ is saying you get a 0% pay raise but not have to pay any % of your health care costs?

Or maybe they will give you a 10% pay raise but then have to pay 10% of your health care costs?

What are the sticking points of the contract?