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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called out Verizon’s employment practices in a speech Monday delivered in solidarity with Verizon workers conducting informational picketing as they continue to fight for a new contract with the phone company.
“Their greed knows no bounds,” Sanders told the crowd in Manhattan. “Verizon is a metaphor. You got corporate America making huge profits, their CEO’s getting huge compensation packages, and then with all of their money what they do is hire lawyers in order to make it harder for workers to survive in this country. Workers need decent pay raises, they need decent health care, and they need decent pensions.” Whenever they’re injured, they must be well-compensated. If not, they have the right to contact a work comp lawyer.
It was the first time any major presidential contender joined a worker protest since Jesse Jackson joined a protest against a strike-breaking firm in 1988.
“Let me get to the point,” Sanders said at a picket line outside of a Verizon Wireless store. “The middle class in this country is disappearing and what Verizon is doing to their workers is exactly what has got to be fought if we are going to rebuild the American middle class. What this campaign is about is that corporate America can’t have it all.”
“I think Verizon needs to hear from the American people,” Sanders added. “We want them to create more broadband. We want them to pay their workers a decent wage. We want them to sit down and negotiate a decent contract.”
A Verizon spokesperson dismissed Sanders’ speech as “a stunt.”
Sanders is no stranger to telecom issues in the northeastern U.S. He remains a fierce critic of FairPoint Communications, which acquired Verizon landlines in the northern New England states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. After the company declared bankruptcy reorganization, FairPoint workers went on strike after the firm imposed the elimination of all retirement benefits, health care coverage, pensions, and job security.
Sanders sponsored a Thanksgiving dinner for the strikers and their families in Vermont at the Burlington High School. He is a frequent critic of corporate mergers in the telecommunications marketplace.
[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bernie Sanders Verizon Rally 10-26-15.mp4[/flv]
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) attacks Verizon’s corporate policies at a union picket outside a Verizon Wireless store in Manhattan. (5:25)
I would vote for Sanders but hate to say it he will not win and here’s why : Sanders will not be voted by most on this country. As much as I like him and agree with what he is saying, he is too socialist and his record some of I question. The solutions he is proposing is raising taxes on the very wealthy, but also on the rest of us. That’s not going to go very well with most of the country including the miserable racists and ignorant bible thumpers. In this case with Verizon, Sanders and the CWA… Read more »
@ Joe V…. Should VZ be forced to remain in markets/ business segments that, it determines, no longer fit with its long range goals? Frontier, Windsteam and Centryrlink all entered into transactions with VZ of their own free will; they calculated the debt load that they could assume . These companies did not vote for a government financial backstop; our Congress voted for the backstop rules. If we’re screwed, it’s because of folks like Bernie Sanders, that want government fingers, stuck very deeply, in everything. Apple’s margin is about 2X that of VZ, yet no endless words from Bernie’s mouth… Read more »
All U.S. and European corporations decided to offshore their operations to China and India in order to maximize profits while simultaneously decimating the middle class of their home countries. You know what that is called? Economic treason. The one good outcome out of that is those outsourcing nations have allowed intellectual property theft to run rampant supported by their corrupt governments making those corporations realize that just maybe it wasn’t a great idea in the first place. They are getting exactly what they deserve. Apple is a hardware company. They make cell phones, tablets, computers and some software like every… Read more »
The focus of this article, with extensive Bernie Sanders quotes, in no way notes any neglect that our communication infrastructure is suffering. Sanders is quoted, multiple times, as critical of profit and corporate behavior in general;at the expense of the middle class: “Their greed knows no bounds,” Sanders told the crowd in Manhattan. “Verizon is a metaphor. You got corporate America making huge profits,…[]” “What this campaign is about is that corporate America can’t have it all.” If VZ is a bad corporate citizen, based on profits and many of their employment practices, Apple is 2X worse; Sanders is quoted… Read more »
You just don’t get it do you?? ALL U.S. corporations who outsource jobs in order to maximize profits are bad corporate citizens. I never once said Apple is a good corporate citizen. They are a ruthless greedy corporations just like their deceased CEO Steve Jobs. In fact, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak backs Sanders. How’s that for hypocrisy? http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/apple-co-founder-backs-sanders That being said, this article is NOT about Apple as they have nothing to do with our telecommunications infrastructure at hand. Regardless of whether this article notes any communications infrastructure neglect, the bottom line is that IT IS about Verizon’s heavy handed… Read more »
The free trade agreements this country started signing in the 1990s made no sense to six year olds who would ask you how someone in Ohio working at a manufacturing plant making $15+ an hour could compete with someone in China earning $15 a week. The answer, which eluded Quick Cash Clinton and the Republicans was, of course, they couldn’t. Goodbye jobs, hello stagnant and declining wages for the work that is left. In the next 10 years, cheap overseas labor will be eating white collar IT jobs as well as education standards improve in countries like India and Pakistan.… Read more »
My view is Verizon made off like a bandit and Frontier and FairPoint got the neglected wireline networks they overpaid for. Suckers. I think Sanders’ big thing is supporting the unions. I have to say I personally don’t understand the hatred for organized labor among some in this country. We’re in a race to the bottom and my only guess is that some are envious the unions negotiated compensation packages for workers non-unionized employees elsewhere could only dream of getting. The answer is probably more unions, not less. I hear folks yell about unions but say nothing about hideous executive… Read more »
I’m glad Sanders has the balls enough to tell the truth. Somebody has to. And I’m glad that these Verizon executives are taking massive heat with their names and emails being published hearing the wrath of angry customers.
Again Phil, until you started reporting I have never heard of the companies Frontier, Fairpoint, Windstream and CenturyLink taking over Verizon’s wireline. Despite the massive problems, somebody has to take over the copper.
That being said, I’d still like to see Verizon and AT&T executives prosecuted for fraud.
Workers unionizing for better compensation is a good thing. Unfortunately, I think they hurt their own cause when they unionize to create restrictive work rules; significantly reducing productivity. People need to be cross- trained and available to do other jobs when the demand arises.
The one thing I don’t like about unions and this a major problem with all of them is that they protect those that do not want to work.
My feelings about unions are mixed but if you look at (1) the areas that are blackballed for further fiber investment from VZ and (2) the places that Google Fiber is going into, you find overwhelmingly the (2) states are almost all right-to-work states (except on the West Coast) and the (1) states are not. It is a rule of nature that you will get more of things that are cheaper and less of things that are more expensive. If you had to call in the Plumbers & Steamfitters union to install a second Jacuzzi in a McMansion and they… Read more »
I had this good friend of mine who was a local union CWA member of Verizon in the state of Massachusetts. He was injured on the job making him physically disabled where he could not work at all. Verizon wanted to settle with him with a very good severance package and pension, but his union boss would not allow him to negotiate with the company at all. It turned into a 9-year battle. His union boss essentially screwed my friend out of a good settlement and severance package because of the greed of the union boss. Keep in mind no… Read more »
I’m from Sweden. Here in the cities, like Stockholm, we usally have fiber to the home, build sometime by the muncipality and managed by private companies, both with unions. So, in my place I could choose between 5-10 fiber operators delivering Intenet, phone and TV, at competitetive and reasonable prices. http://svenskabostader.qmarket.se/ I don’t understand what’s the problem with unions in US. If one union leader are corrupt vote him/her out. If the private providers company’s leader are to greedy, vote him/her out with your pocket. Change to another provider. If all private providers are owned/controlled by few other private to… Read more »