It isn't just Verizon workers who the company is harming, they are also being protested by customers who have been lied to by the profitable company.
Occupy the Boardroom has expanded their agenda to include specific Wall Street companies, most notably anti-union Verizon. Those dissatisfied with Verizon's actions can now go to a specific sub-site hosted by Occupy the Boardroom, learn more about the company, and leave their comments for the executives running the business and assaulting its workers.
Tell some of the biggest corporate tax dodgers in America exactly what you think of them! Verizon, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America have all spent billions on lobbying since they helped crash the economy – more than they paid in corporate taxes. In fact, not only have they spent billion buying access, they've all gamed the system to receive millions in TAX REFUNDS! Find that offensive? Tell the executives of these companies yourself!
Representative messages left at the site (and to be delivered to Verizon executives) are like those from Melanie and Robert Baker:
“You expect your loyal employees to give back their hard-won benefits and you still want these Americans to pay!! Mean while you and your moneyed peers continue to cop out of your financial responsibilities to this country!!! We are a capitalistic country but we are also one nation, under God and we are for the people and by the people!!! Fairness to all! Quit lining your pockets with the hard earned earnings of fellow Americans and PLAY FAIR! Time to fire the lobbyists and take care of your own! Pay your taxes and treat your workers fairly and with respect.”
Communications Workers of America has renewed its efforts to convince Verizon to negotiate with its workers in a fair manner and to stop its union-busting efforts with a powerful new video that highlights the voices of Verizon workers. The video features numerous employees of the telecom asking for Verizon to do the right thing, Specifically, they ask Verizon to:
Stop exploiting tax loopholes while cutting medical benefits
Settle a contract with the workers
Stop outsourcing
Pay a fair share in taxes
Participate in society, support society, and support middle class jobs
From 2008 – 2010, despite billions in profits, Verizon paid no federal income taxes. Anyone that paid even a penny in federal income taxes paid more than Verizon did from 2008 – 2010. At the same time, Verizon is trying to destroy middle class jobs.
Tax evasion and union-busting are wrong. America needs a strong middle class, not corporate greed. I urge Verizon to stop trying to destroy middle class jobs and stop using corporate tax loopholes and dodges to avoid paying a fair share
Crooks and Liars has previously reported extensively on Verizon's anti-union tactics and the efforts of CWA and others to fight back. Verizon is a profitable company that is demanding extreme concessions from workers that are not necessary, particularly at a time when Verizon had a -2.9 percent tax rate in recent years.
More information and action opportunities can be found at CWA's Unity@Verizon website.
The Communications Workers of America created a parody video as a response to a propaganda piece Verizon sent out to 45,000 unionized employees in an attempt to get workers to stop fighting proposed cuts to worker benefits. In the Verizon video, company executives try to make the case that union workers should cave to demands from Verizon:
The video details company demands such as concessions on health care and the expectation that workers learn to do multiple jobs, with sales reps handling some tech functions and tech support workers handling some sales.
There is no need for Verizon to pursue the level of cuts to compensation for their workers that they are after. Verizon had a $6 billion profit last year (on revenues of $108 billion) and just paid a $10 billion dividend. Over the last four years, the company has a total of more than $19 billion in profits. Verizon's profits not only make them one of the richest and most successful companies in the country, they are outperforming the overall communications industry. The company's chair, Ivan Seidenberg makes more than 300 times what the average Verizon worker makes. The top five executives have been paid more than $250 million in the past four years.
Citizens for Tax Justice released a report Tuesday that shows that anti-union telecom company Verizon not only paid no taxes in the last three years, the company received nearly $1 billion in rebates from the government.
Verizon enjoyed some $14 billion in federal and state corporate income tax subsidies in the 2008-2010 period even though it earned $33.4 billion in pre-tax U.S. income during that time.
At the federal level, Verizon should have paid about $11.4 billion at the statutory rate of 35 percent during the three-year period. Instead, it got $951 million in rebates, putting its federal tax subsidies at $12.3 billion. Its effective federal tax rate was -2.9 percent.
Verizon has also managed to avoid most state-level taxes as well while pursuing a strong anti-worker set of policies that we have reported on previously. The company has demanded $1 billion in benefit concessions from workers despite paying no taxes and raking in profits.
Verizon has been one of the most efficient tax dodging corporations in the country:
At the state level, Verizon should have paid about $2.3 billion in corporate income taxes during the
period but it handed over only $866 million. Its aggregate state rate was only 2.6 percent, far below
the weighted state average rate of 6.8 percent. This gave it state tax subsidies of about $1.4 billion.
Verizon also used a special tax loophole called the ReverseMorrisTrust to avoid paying about $1.5 billion
in federal and state and local taxes on the sale of its landline assets in various states.
Verizon also aggressively seeks state and local tax subsidies through credits, abatements and exemptions. There is no centralized reporting on these subsidies but in this report we document $180 million
in special tax breaks and grants Verizon and VerizonWireless received in 13 states...
Despite conservative claims about these types of benefits leading to reinvestment in workers and research and development, Verizon has done the exact opposite, laying off tens of thousands of workers and cutting back on capital expenditures by $1 billion. On top of that, the company's CEO has made massive bonuses during this same period, completely eliminating any validity to claims that the company is in trouble and has a reason to demand concessions from workers.
More to come as details develop, but the Communications Workers of America just sent out the following release:
Members of CWA and IBEW at Verizon Communications will return to work on Tuesday, Aug. 23, at which time the contract will be back in force for an indefinite period.
We have reached agreement with Verizon on how bargaining will proceed and how it will be restructured. The major issues remain to be discussed, but overall, issues now are focused and narrowed.
We appreciate the unity of our members and the support of so many in the greater community. Now we will focus on bargaining fairly and moving forward.
CWA and IBEW represent 45,000 workers at Verizon covered by this contract from Virginia to New England.
Members recently received letters from Verizon announcing that it is canceling group benefit plans for striking workers. This is an action which employers often take in strike situations to try unsettle the resolve of the strikers.
At CWA, we have faced this issue many times in the past and always protected our members and their families so that no one is harmed as a result of management’s ruthless act. This will be true for this strike as well.
Rather than attempting to negotiate a fair settlement with the workers, Verizon has decided to go the punitive route, trying to break the striking workers. Verizon has never attempted to approach this situation in good faith and this is another example of that. The Communications Workers of America say they are familiar with the tactic, though, and that they will make sure to take care of the working families affected by this move.
For those who are following along with the Verizon strike and want to do what you can do to get involved, there are a bunch of ways for you to get directly involved or show your solidarity. Forty-five thousand Verizon workers are on strike because the massively profitable company, which pays no taxes, is demanding major cuts in employee compensation and refuses to negotiate fairly with workers. The Communications Workers of America filed a unfair labor practice grievance again Verizon on Friday.
One creative way to get involved is the "What Verizon's Name Means" contest sponsored by the CWA. The union is asking creative supporters to come up with a translation that reveals what Verizon's name really means.
Janette Spoor, a Communications Workers of America activist, asked Congresswoman Nan Hayworth (R-NY) what she will do to help American workers whose jobs are being sent overseas. Rather than answering the question, Hayworth goes on an unrelated rant on American exceptionalism and how the United States has offered more opportunity to its citizens than any other country. She argued that this is true because the government stayed out of the "free" market.
The audience wasn't happy with the answer and pressed her to answer the question. One man pointed out that the greatest growth in American history came when Franklin Roosevelt was president and government was more involved.
Hayworth continued to spout her Tea Party-free market rhetoric, but the audience wasn't having it. She was called out for her support for various free trade acts and her refusal to vote to close tax loopholes that benefit companies that outsource jobs. The same man then blasted her "You are the problem, not the answer," and "Ma'am, you are not the teacher here, you are a congresswoman."
When she was asked about the outsourcing of jobs by Verizon and the subsequent strike, Hayworth refused to discuss the topic: "I am not talking about Verizon right now...This is not the Verizon meeting."
She continued by saying that the solution to jobs was taxes that are more "free" and flat.
Sam Seder takes a look at an amazing clip from a large rally against Verizon.
More than 40,000 workers -- members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers -- went on strike this week after Verizon refused to even begin to bargain fairly with the workers. The workers on strike include "telephone field technicians, call center workers and cable installers from Massachusetts to Virginia."
Verizon has canceled multiple bargaining sessions and refuses to back down from any of their original concession requests, something that flies in the face of the basic idea of negotiating. Workers say they are prepared to return to work as soon as management shows a willingness to sit down and work out a fair agreement.
Verizon is looking for $1 billion in concessions, an average of $20,000 per family that is supported by a Verizon worker, and will not back down from any of their demands. The workers, on the other hand, have shown a willingness to make concessions, particularly when it comes to health care benefits.
-Continued contracting out of work to low-wage contractors, which means more outsourcing of good jobs overseas.
-Eliminating disability benefits for workers injured while on the job.
-Elimination of all job security provisions.
-Eliminating paid sick days for new hires and limiting them to no more than five for any workers.
-Freezing pensions for current workers and eliminating them for future employees.
-Replacing the current high-quality health care plan with a high-deductible plan requiring up to $6,800 in additional costs.
Verizon's attack on its workers is not new. In recent years, it has cut is percentage of unionized jobs nearly in half. The company has also outsourced more than 25,000 jobs. Verizon's cell phone division is mostly non-union.
The assault on Verizon's workers is part of a larger battle taking place across the country, where conservatives in government and business are blaming unions and working families for larger problems that unions either have nothing to do with or the alleged problems don't even exist. Corporate profits are at the highest proportion of the national income that has ever been recorded, and they continue to increase. At the same time, the percentage of national income that makes up wages has slipped below 50 percent of the overall total for the first time in recorded history, and the decline goes on. Not surprisingly, Verizon is an active member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the same organization behind the assaults on unions in numerous states.
There are a number of ways you can get involved of follow the developments in the strike:
Read more about the strike directly from the CWA. You can keep up with the events on Twitter at @VZLaborfacts or by following the hashtag #verizonstrike. Learn more on Facebook as well.
Google and Verizon released a new plan this week for how the Internet should operate (see Susan's post for more background), if they got to rule the world. We'd keep Net Neutrality for the wired Internet (at least for consumers not corporations), but they could set up fast lanes and slow lanes for the wireless Internet. Wireless is of course the future of the Internet, but then again that is exactly the point.
Their proposal has devided the tech industry, as the NYT reported today, with Facebook, Amazon, eBay and venture capitalists raising serious concerns with the Google/Verizon evil deal:
It set off a flood of reaction, much of it negative, from Web companies and consumer advocacy groups. In the most extreme situation that opponents envision, two Internets could emerge — the public one known today, and a private one with faster lanes and expensive tolls. [snip]
The wireless Internet is quickly emerging as the dominant technology platform, said Matt Cohler, a general partner at Benchmark Capital, a prominent venture firm in Silicon Valley that has invested in start-ups like Twitter. “It is as important to have the right protections in place for the newer platform as it is for the older platform.”
The media has trashed their evil deal and over 300,000 people have signed an open letter demanding Google drop this proposal.
It's a giant corporate power-grab and Google who claims to "do no evil" is doing exactly that with this evil plan. That's why MoveOn, the PCCC (where I work), CREDO Action, Color of Change and Free Press are holding a rally at noon tomorrow in front of Google headquarters. The event is at the corner of Amphitheatre Parkway and Charleston Road in Mountain View. Click here to RSVP.
For people in the San Francisco area, there will be a bus leaving from the San Francisco Opera House at 11 a.m. You have to RSVP to get on the bus, as seats are limited.
This deal can be stopped, but only if President Obama and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski understand just how angry we are at the prospect of our rights being trampled online by Google and other corporate giants. So, please join us, or if you don't live in the Bay Area, pass along the info to your friends.
