For Immediate Release: April 12, 2016

Contact: Mark Brueggenjohann  202-728-6014

Verizon Workers Go On Strike April 13

IBEW President Denounces Unchecked Corporate Greed

Nearly 40,000 Verizon employees from Virginia to Maine will go on strike April 13 at 6 A.M unless a fair agreement can be reached beforehand.

"No one ever wants to go on strike – it's always the last resort," said International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers President Lonnie R. Stephenson. "But Verizon's refusal to bargain in good faith with employees and its insistence on gutting job security, retirement security and outsourcing good American jobs overseas gives us no choice."

Despite making over $39 billion in profits over the last three years, Verizon has demanded major cutbacks from employees, while refusing to consider hundreds of millions of dollars in health care savings offered by Communications Workers of America and IBEW negotiators.

"This is a chemically pure example of corporate greed in action," said Stephenson. "We've been more than willing to work together with management to find ways to cut costs. But this isn't about saving money. It's about gutting good middle-class jobs and pushing a corporate race to the bottom for working families."

Negotiations on a contract began last June. The current contract expired Aug. 1. Among Verizon's demands include further outsourcing of call-center jobs to Mexico and the Philippines and the right to force technicians to workup to two months away from home.

"The last thing this economy needs is more outsourcing," said Stephenson. "And we should be making it easier for working moms and dads to support and raise their families, not harder."

Verizon also wants to raise health-care costs for retirees.

In 2014, CEO Lowell McAdam made more than $18 million – more than 200 times what an average employee makes.

"This is an extremely profitable, successful company," said Stephenson. "But McAdam continues to insist on attacking everything that makes a Verizon job a good one."

"It's time for McAdam to come back to the table and engage in mutually beneficial bargaining that works for management, labor and the customer alike."

The IBEW represents 10,000 of the nearly 40,000 workers scheduled to go on strike. It represents employees in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.