Posted on 08/20/2009 11:13:35 AM PDT by HalfFull
Angry about how a highly profitable corporation like Verizon is threatening hundreds of layoffs, telephone union leaders and some potentially laid off workers held an unprecedented briefing with the staffs of five members of Congress and both Massachusetts senators.
The meeting was convened in Senator Kennedy's office at the Boston Federal Building and was attended by leaders of all the Massachusetts IBEW telephone workers' unions.
"Despite being a very profitable corporation, Verizon announced it wants to cut 8,000 jobs nationally and as many as 500 jobs in Massachusetts," said Myles Calvey, Business Manager of Local 2222 and Chairman of the IBEW System Council T-6. "If Verizon is allowed to do this, it will lead to suicides, foreclosures and broken families. This is nothing but pure corporate greed."
(Excerpt) Read more at openmediaboston.org ...
Looks like we’re going for an even 600,000 jobs lost next month, Eh?
Go Verizon...
Suicides? Going a little over the top aren’t they?
Everyone knows the drill. When the going gets tough, businesses cut employees.
BTW, has anyone asked what kind of severence package these employees will get? My guess is pretty darned good compared to most other people losing thier jobs.
Union dictating company policy. Verizon sells it’s landlines to a small company, and that company is not teetering on bankruptcy.
This article is about LANDLINE workers. A hundred years ago it would have been buggywhip workers.
Times and technology change. I used to be a mainframe COBOL IMS DB2 programmer. I live in Seattle so I had to find a different occupation or see my wages plummet.
Protecting the ‘buggy wheel spoke union” ??
I'm playing a tiny violin as I sit 930 miles from home to earn a living. I'm missing my youngest son's birthday today. I'll spend my own birthday away from home next week. It's a crappy economy. You go where you must to keep earning income.
>>Union dictating company policy. Verizon sells it’s landlines to a small company, and that company is now teetering on bankruptcy. Looks like a pretty smart business decision by Verizon
This article is about LANDLINE workers. A hundred years ago it would have been buggywhip workers.
Times and technology change. I used to be a mainframe COBOL IMS DB2 programmer. I live in Seattle so I had to find a different occupation or see my wages plummet.
When PacBell ushered 6,000 people out the door in Dec 1991, I seriously looked at the Seattle area. The choices were Microsoft or supporting small IBM servers. Too bad. I enjoyed the year I lived in Federal Way (1964). I took a better job in San Diego. I'm still hooked up to that one.
Non sequitur.
What do Verizon's profits have do do with the number of employees needed to run the business?
I know someone who works for Verizon. He's professional, and is not in a union. It is true that Verizon is very profitable. It's also true that management is obsessed with laying off people. They've been that way for years, even when the economy wasn't this bad.
I know someone who works for Verizon. He’s professional, and is not in a union. It is true that Verizon is very profitable. It’s also true that management is obsessed with laying off people. They’ve been that way for years, even when the economy wasn’t this bad.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I’ve worked for three large telecoms (AT&T, GTE, & Verizon.) It was true at all three. The reason?
1. The telecom business has been shrinking for decades. Long distance now a give away. Local land lines going away (replace by cells phones or internet phones.)
2. The only growing part of the industry is cellular, but that’s very competitive. Big telecoms still have a monopoly mindset, and just aren’t fast or mobile enough to work in a competive market like cellular.
The economy for telecoms has been in a depression for the last 20 years.
These idiots need to move to Russia where all corporations are run for 'the common good' and life is wonderful all the time /sarc. Of course Verizon is allowed to run their business as they need to. They are accountable to their stockholders, not their employees. This 'pure corporate greed' BS is pure propaganda... Verizon management is using their resources as they need to perform the tasks that earn their income. They have no obligation to pay hundreds of thousands of unneeded workers to sit on their asses, just to fatten the union dues. They aren't government motors.
But just wait... soon there will be US Congressional investigations, questions about executive compensation, and another major US corporation under the thumb of Chicago thug politics. This fascist regime needs to end soon. Let's make sure we vote the b*stards out.
Copper telephone service is disappearing. These people can't do anything else. So just because Verizon is profitable, it has to continue to employ useless union workers? They could use that same twisted logic to make GM hire them as soon as GM becomes profitable. Of course, in that case, they'd probably never work again...
I don’t care if Verizon is making more profit than an oil company, and planning to lay off everyone but the night janitor! Yes, it IS corporate greed, pure and simple. But THERE IS NOTHING ILLEGAL ABOUT GREED!
The only thing worse than amoral capitalists setting corporate policy is an incompetent, amoral government setting corporate policy.
Change your phone provider. Write the PR flacks at Verizon. Protest outside their offices. Buy a billboard. Show them for the heartless, greedy bastards they are. But for ALL our sakes, don’t get Congress involved.
I think as soon as they get this health care thing passed, taking over all telephone service providers will be next up for the 0bama thugs. After all, we can’t trust the phone companies to be working in our best interests, and some of their executives get very high salaries.
I actually milked the Cobol thin all the way to 2004 as a contractor. I finally stuck at the last place I contracted (still there) as a Business Analyst. I thank the Lord and feel blessed that I was able to laterally move (moneywise) into this position.
I worked for BLS for 30 years and the CWA protected the lame and lazy and destroyed the “Telco”
Talk about fearmongering at its finest. So maybe Verizon ought to do what Eastern airlines did, let the union run it into the ground until it destroys the company.
i sup my income with bell dividends and think nows the tim to liquidate...
A company does NOT retain employees “because it is profitable”!
It is “profitable” because it retains only the workforce necessary to accoplish the job!
Heartless?
Our company announced layoffs this week and I’ve been layed off before.
If someone wants to recieve a paycheck, irrespective of value added.....find a government position!
How DARE a company do what is in it’s best interest. Doesn’t Verizon realize that the well being of union thugs is the only important consideration!! I wonder how long it will take for Hussein to decide that firings/layoffs must go through his office for approval.
Aren't we all "potentially laid off workers?".
WTF, over.
Verizon does layoffs in departments that are profitable, have growing businesses, and are already understaffed.
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