On Aug. 11, a sea of red filled downtown Albany as roughly 1,000 striking Verizon workers and supporters congregated in front of Verizon’s headquarters demanding that workers receive fair compensation and a just contract.
Represented by the Communication Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, 45,000 unionized Verizon workers walked off the job on Aug. 7 in response to Verizon’s attempt to squeeze additional pay and benefits from its workers.
Despite making $19 billion in profits in the last four years, and compensating their top five executives more than a quarter of a billion dollars, Verizon wasn’t satisfied, deciding to join the growing ranks of union busting businesses while disguising its motives in the familiar story of necessary cost reduction in difficult economic times. The problem for them is that Verizon workers, rightfully, aren’t buying it.
Since the economic crisis of 2008, the excuse of “necessity” has been the intensifying mantra of the ruling class, whether in the form of “austerity measures” that undermine social programs, schools, and public employee pay and benefits, or as we’re seeing now in the case of Verizon workers in the private sector.
A cursory glance at the numbers, however, leaves little room for doubt: there is sufficient money to meet the needs of workers in all sectors, it’s just that that money is increasingly concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer individuals at the expense of the rest of us. Those who produce society’s wealth are not being granted their rightful share. If the character of the Verizon strike and the events in Albany are any indication of how working people feel about this situation, CEOs and billionaires should be worried.
Albany CWA and IBEW members have been picketing around the clock since Aug. 7, stating their position loud and clear: “No contract, no peace!” and “What’s disgusting? Union busting!” among other chants, have filled the area surrounding Verizon headquarters for days. Despite the presence of a private security company hired by Verizon to intimidate striking workers, resolve remained strong in the days leading up to the mass rally on Aug. 11.
Former Verizon technician Kevin Eitzmann described the importance of this strike as “huge”: “Verizon makes a perfect villain, making billions off workers and spending it all on lavish compensation for the top five executives. This is not a company in dire straits and they freely admit their only driving force is greed. On the other hand, CWA and IBEW have a long history of militancy and grassroots membership-driven mobilization—whether it was the 17- week strike in 1989 or the seven-month strike in '71. A true win at the Verizon strike could set a new template for contracts by using an old template, strike.”
A win for Verizon workers could set the stage for the revival of more militant tactics and allow labor to go on the offensive.
On Aug. 11, striking workers were joined by a host of organizations and individuals who had come to express their solidarity. Even though the strike was just four days old, representatives of NYSUT, PEF, Save Our SUNY, United Steel Workers, Teamsters, AFSCME, Citizen Action, groups of teachers, and others energetically mobilized to join the mass rally. The broad base of support from public and private sector workers, student groups, veterans, and grassroots organizations was reminiscent of the type of solidarity achieved in the Madison, Wisc., protests earlier this year. The sentiment at the rally was clearly that “an injury to one is an injury to all,” and that all of our struggles are deeply intertwined.
As Colin Jenkins, an Army veteran and New York State employee put it: “As working people, we no longer have protections against the devastating presence of corporate power. Solidarity is all we have left. The government has failed miserably, so unions are our last vestige of hope. I realize this, my union brothers and sisters realize this, and workers all over the country are starting to realize this. That’s why I am here today.” In Albany, that sense of solidarity was palpable.
Following the beginning stages of a lively rally outside of Verizon headquarters, the 1,000 or so demonstrators made their way through the streets of Albany to the Crowne Plaza Hotel where Verizon is housing out-of-state scabs, largely culled from management positions, to undermine the strength of the strike.
“Scabs go home!” echoed through the streets, indicting a tactic used by companies for decades to weaken the power of workers. Demonstrators then returned to the Verizon building, where representatives of labor and grassroots groups spoke to the crowd.
Infusing the moment with a sense of hope and expectant optimism, a speaker from the Capital District Area Labor Federation suggested that this could become “our Wisconsin” —in other words, an opportunity for working people to exert their power and begin to remake society in the interests of the many instead of the few. This moment does possess the potential to become another Wisconsin, but only if we seize it, recognizing that each of our individual struggles is inextricably linked to those of our brothers and sisters across all sectors of work and movements for justice and liberation.
