The Gloves Are Coming Off

[SHARKEYMARINE]

Saturday night the Verizon contract expires at midnight. All they can tell us is that we are no closer to a contract than when they 1st started negotiating.
The company is seeking rediculus give backs on the union's part. Cutting the Benefits "Pay More Get Less" is a big issue.
A federal mediator has already been brought in. That was a real surprise that he came in so soon.
Homeland Security also stepped in. They told the company they do not want to see us Strike and that the company needs to settle this thing.
They feel the country's security could be an issue if they have 80,000 communication workers walk off the job.

The reason I brought this to the board is I know a lot of members from here boat on the Barnegat Bay. If by chance you are up near the Metedeconk River's north side on Saturday morning, come by and blow your horn in support of our Local 827.
We will be having a little peaceful get together.

Thank you for your support!

[PaulO]

I refuse to start a big debate here and this is not the proper place for this but, I must say:
There are at least two sides to every story and I know the other side to this one very well. Anyone interested in this issue should hear both sides and know all the facts if they feel inclined to show support either way.
PaulO

[oldLenny]

Sharkey, I work for TELUS here as a tech as well. VERIZON is our largest single shareholder at 27%. We have been without a contract now for 4 years... :rolleyes: Same ol' thing. Last week our COMPANY posted RECORD!!! profits...They too want all the same things. Roll-backs, vacation, pay-equity returns, benefits etc...overtime.

Sorry I can't go by on the weekend and show you some support but I'll toot my horn remotely for you...

Paulo, I agree, two sides, but in our case, and a 35% reduction in workforce already instated in the last year, amongst other things, it is getting pretty stupid in the Communications sector. Basically, the general direction is to have about 50 highly trained personel flying all over the place to fix things "eventually" and thousands of minimum wage workers at the beckon call, all responsible for the BACKBONE of everything that happens in the world of business and communications today. If you are just a POTS customer, DSL or not, WAN, LAN, whatever, you wait till the cows come home for service.

Your service degradation at the cost of the Corporation making insane profits. Much along the lines of CHEVRON/TEXACO posting profits that QRADRUPLED in the last quarter. eek!

[Barry Phillips]

I have 2 cousins who work for Verizon, brother and sister. One in management and the other in installation. I here it from both of them, Verizon wants to cut back on home services and concentrate on wireless, get rid of techs for sales guys to peddle wirelss contacts. I would do a way with my home phone but wireless is no where there yet in terms of service, I wanted to change my existing service to take advanges of plan changes made to my current service. I well never sign a 2 year contract again. Come October Verizon might be gone, should have worked with me on changing my current contract. Funny how when the Feds broke up Bell to increase competition and reduce rates and my rates have trippled. Living in NJ, I deal with 4 area codes in a 30 mile radius with long distance, local long distance and local, bull####.

SO-SLO

[Dalelama]

You've got my support Brother!!

I.B.E.W local # 349 Miami, Florida
Member 25 years

[mattyboy]

I've worked both sides in my career labor and now management, and now has a small company health costs are killing us, we have had to contribute some money to offset costs, but the president to the sweeper all contribute equally and we treat all our employess like gold, and I know that ain't always the case and the ma bells have be notorious for shafting people, the problem with big companies the top dogs get all the perks and the litlle dogs get to foot the bill.
you can always tell the top dogs too they are the ones with their heads so far up their asses they need to untie their ties to eat lunch!!!!!

Matty

[McGary911]

Good luck Sharkey! I don't have a very loud horn on my boat, but i have a couple of pipes hooked to a 502 wink

Between your Checkmate and your job, this guy seems to be a major pain in your ass!

[Bryan Tuvell 33ZX]

I wish you the best SHARKEYMARINE.
Who in the Homeland Security department stepped in? Just curious.
Bryan

[SHARKEYMARINE]

Bryan Tuvell 26ZX:
I wish you the best SHARKEYMARINE.
Who in the Homeland Security department stepped in? Just curious.
Bryan There was talk of it at our meeting, exact name I do not know.
Many people think of phone lines to always be a POTS "Plain Old Telephone Service" that runs into a home. It is way more than that.
It becomes a Security matter because of the Communications that are involved among all the airports, police stations,hospitals etc. Data lines where we may have employees watching 24/7 at the airports.
How would you feel knowing someone off the street would be manning those systems?
These systems take alot of experience to learn and will not happen in a few months of training.
Let's hope this thing can be settled.

Some of the company's demands:
1. Be able to layoff employees from January 1996 to present.

2. Wants employees to pay 7% towards medical.

3. Wants employees to pay up to $15 a month towards Dental.

4.Wants to Do Away With Vision Plan.

5.Wants Higher co-pays and increase an Emergency Room co-pay to $100 in 2006. They also want to include a $200 Deductible for in Network and a $1000 Deductible for Out Of Network for the medical.

6. New employees will pay 10% of all Medical and Reduce Retirement Benefits to almost nothing.

7. Retirees will get a set amount of money toward their benefits, then the retiree will have to pay the rest.

8. Sick Time; 3yrs+less NO PAY till the 6th consecutive day out. 1 day per year. 3-5 yrs Paid 5th day out 2 days per year. 5-10 yrs 4th day out paid 4 days per year. 10-15 YRS 3rd day out paid 6 days per year. 15 yrs or more paid 1st day out total 8 days per yr.

9. Cash Out (Lump Sum) Do away with it.

10. Raises$ None were offered as of yet.

11. Relocation of jobs out of state.

[BUIZILLA]

Sharkey, does Verizon pay 100% of employee health now, and pro-rate the family from there? or 100% of family?

J

wondering if Homeland Security would have stepped in on the Eastern Air Lines/Pan Am debacle...

[JP BRESCIA]

A large percentage of my client base is retired union, Carpenters, IBEW, & Teamsters,etc. Due to the recent contract issues, I also happen to have quite a few VZ management as clients who are looking to retire under the old plan, especially with the new GAT rate(gives more pension compared tp last year). You guys/gals should be OK. With MCI(Worldcom) in the hotseat recently for hiding long distance calls to avoid paying other carriers and concern over the gov't contracts they already have, VZ is in a good position to gain significant market share. Your union picked a good time to get tough. Good luck...

[SHARKEYMARINE]

BUIZILLA:
Sharkey, does Verizon pay 100% of employee health now?
No.

I believe it's time to go after the Insurance companies and Medical. Why must medications suddenly sky rocket? Afterall, this seems to be the main problem across the board for all businesses...

I would like to thank all of those boaters that came by today to show your support. You know who you are.
Some of those exhausts sounded awesome too! wink
There was a great turnout along with the WRAT 95.9 stopping by with their huge inflatable rat in the back of a dually. They were kind enough to come by and hand out bottles of water... :cool:

[SHARKEYMARINE]

Bryan Tuvell 26ZX:
Who in the Homeland Security department stepped in? Just curious.
Bryan Security Secretary Tom Ridge

[smokediver]

Sharkey, good luck brother ! FWIW, I was in DC last week and verizon had taken a full page ad. out in the wash. post saying they are working hard to get a good fair contract and stated the average tech made 70,000 in wages and bennies.. I know how they soak the numbers and it is usually total b.s. as far as the ins. is concerned , the ins. companies really make out big time. Hurricane Andrew was just a drop in there bucket. notice you never get a rebate if there is no hurricane... Scott, it blows my mind why small business do not network and try to form an alliance to join workers together and get a better ins. rate. We became self insured 3 years ago and have an umbrella policy for claims over a certain amount...
good luck sharkey
IAFF local 2396

[PaulO]

Poodle,
You tried and it was ignored. That is the trouble. All one-sided. Union employees believe that the company is run for their benefit and that profitability should always go to them. Very naive view. My people deal with techs from all the major TelCos and Verizon is one of the worst for customer service. Can't get a tech to take responsibility to even show up and finish a job. They are heads and shoulders above the average employee in terms of compensation and way below the rest of the poor slobs out there as far as workload and responsibility. That said, Verizon also suffers from some of the worst upper-level management of any company. These guys are milking the company with their compensation packages with no regard.
PaulO