anyone else's spouse on strike duty for Verizon?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: As someone who worked as a union negotiator for number of years, and dealt with my fair share of strikes and near strikes it is absolutely fascinating to watch it happen somewhere else .

As others have mentioned, Management cannot simply fire these employees - some of you may room remember when Reagan broke the Air traffic controller strike...

What I do you think is likely the case at Verizon given the years of experience I have enough space or two universal truths of unions : truth one is that union management does not have the best interest of their own union at heart. They have re-election in mind and the best path to that is to appear to be strong against management, even when doing so hurts the employees more than not. The second universal truth which many people don't like is that union wages and union benefits are generally significantly better and greater than those that would prevail in the open market. The third universal truth if there is one is that management and union staff simply do not get along - this thread is one such example the term scabs is already come out and we're only on page 2.

This leads to often absurd conversations in union negotiations. To share an example or two , I once approached a large union and offered their employees the opportunity to share hotel rooms when traveling . No obligation to do so but our data showed many did anyway and we wanted to reward that type of behavior as of course it saved the company money. I asked for nothing in return, simply an amendment to the existing rules stating that in addition to a fully paid hotel room the employee had the option at their own discretion to share a hotel room in which case each employee would receive $50 as a cost savings measure. I presented this to the union management who immediately and steadfastly declared it highway robbery and demanded $100 per person. I explained that our average hotel room cost was around $150, so two hotel would cost $300. Offering $200 plus the cost of the hote room would place the total cost at $350 - more than the cost of two seperate hotel rooms. I opened the books. They refused to even present the option to the union. Net result? 20% of the union continues to share rooms, we pay them nothing, the other 80% have no idea this was even ever presented. Who wins?

And the examples like this are numerous - employees demanding free massages after every shift, another union complaining that their healthcare dues which were locked in the early 1970s are now approaching $10 per paycheck for family PPO coverage... In many ways I have found unions to be disconnected from reality and left the industry as a result. You can't change what no one wants to change.

I wanted to read this post but it's too long and likely long winded. Can you give me a TLDR version with highlights?

Why would people not want to admit that union wages are better? That's the whole point of a union ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Right, as another PP said,your wife is choosing not to work. She could stay at her job at Verizon and ignore the strike. If she doesn't like Verizon, she can find another job. If everyone leaves these shitty companies, they'll up their benefits to attract more talent.

By the way, I'm a professional, non-union employee who has a pension. It's not great, so I supplement it with the company's 401(k) and a personal IRA. I only make $70,000 a year, so I'm hardly the CEO type your wife rails against. If I don't like a job or its benefits, I move on, or supplement myself (like with the IRA). See how easy that it?

You can leave and move on, what about the people that work in the call centers in rural areas that dont have other jobs to go to? What happens when that town dies because the employer leaves? Who fights for those people if everyone who doesnt care just goes to work?

Then you move.

My husband is military, don't even tell me it's not possible. As a trailing spouse, I've done this many times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Verizon is PAYING your insurance THIS month while your wife is CHOOSING not to work. They agreed to do that (very generously, I think), for one month of a strike. Why *should* they pay your insurance while your wife is NOT DOING HER JOB any longer than that?

Also, I'm sure she is getting paid via the strike fund--isn't that the point of union dues?

Finally, let's point out that if she is getting paid half of $78/hr, that's still almost $40/hr, or $83,000 per year (plus that FREE health insurance). So it's not like we're talking about minimum wage workers facing awful safety conditions. Cry me a river--and tell your union leadership she wants to get back to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Verizon is PAYING your insurance THIS month while your wife is CHOOSING not to work. They agreed to do that (very generously, I think), for one month of a strike. Why *should* they pay your insurance while your wife is NOT DOING HER JOB any longer than that?

Also, I'm sure she is getting paid via the strike fund--isn't that the point of union dues?

Finally, let's point out that if she is getting paid half of $78/hr, that's still almost $40/hr, or $83,000 per year (plus that FREE health insurance). So it's not like we're talking about minimum wage workers facing awful safety conditions. Cry me a river--and tell your union leadership she wants to get back to work.

She is not getting the insurance for free asshole. She is working for the insurance. It is part of the compensation. Without unions we would all be earning peanuts while the CEO's would be raking in the big bucks. The problem is not the unions, but that there are not enough unions.

F***ng Reagan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Verizon is PAYING your insurance THIS month while your wife is CHOOSING not to work. They agreed to do that (very generously, I think), for one month of a strike. Why *should* they pay your insurance while your wife is NOT DOING HER JOB any longer than that?

Also, I'm sure she is getting paid via the strike fund--isn't that the point of union dues?

Finally, let's point out that if she is getting paid half of $78/hr, that's still almost $40/hr, or $83,000 per year (plus that FREE health insurance). So it's not like we're talking about minimum wage workers facing awful safety conditions. Cry me a river--and tell your union leadership she wants to get back to work.

You are missing the point, It is not just her job she is striking over, Its the other people, she is standing in solidarity with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Verizon is PAYING your insurance THIS month while your wife is CHOOSING not to work. They agreed to do that (very generously, I think), for one month of a strike. Why *should* they pay your insurance while your wife is NOT DOING HER JOB any longer than that?

Also, I'm sure she is getting paid via the strike fund--isn't that the point of union dues?

Finally, let's point out that if she is getting paid half of $78/hr, that's still almost $40/hr, or $83,000 per year (plus that FREE health insurance). So it's not like we're talking about minimum wage workers facing awful safety conditions. Cry me a river--and tell your union leadership she wants to get back to work.

You are missing the point, It is not just her job she is striking over, Its the other people, she is standing in solidarity with them.

Again, her choice to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Verizon is PAYING your insurance THIS month while your wife is CHOOSING not to work. They agreed to do that (very generously, I think), for one month of a strike. Why *should* they pay your insurance while your wife is NOT DOING HER JOB any longer than that?

Also, I'm sure she is getting paid via the strike fund--isn't that the point of union dues?

Finally, let's point out that if she is getting paid half of $78/hr, that's still almost $40/hr, or $83,000 per year (plus that FREE health insurance). So it's not like we're talking about minimum wage workers facing awful safety conditions. Cry me a river--and tell your union leadership she wants to get back to work.

You are missing the point, It is not just her job she is striking over, Its the other people, she is standing in solidarity with them.

Really? Doesn't matter that she's screwing customers, her bosses, and shareholders, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Verizon is PAYING your insurance THIS month while your wife is CHOOSING not to work. They agreed to do that (very generously, I think), for one month of a strike. Why *should* they pay your insurance while your wife is NOT DOING HER JOB any longer than that?

Also, I'm sure she is getting paid via the strike fund--isn't that the point of union dues?

Finally, let's point out that if she is getting paid half of $78/hr, that's still almost $40/hr, or $83,000 per year (plus that FREE health insurance). So it's not like we're talking about minimum wage workers facing awful safety conditions. Cry me a river--and tell your union leadership she wants to get back to work.

She is not getting the insurance for free asshole. She is working for the insurance. It is part of the compensation. Without unions we would all be earning peanuts while the CEO's would be raking in the big bucks. The problem is not the unions, but that there are not enough unions.

F***ng Reagan.

I don't want to join a union. I refuse to pay in order to work. I refuse to play games. I refuse to beat people who disagree with me. Unions are evil.

By the way - I don't want a CEO's job. They deserve that money, because when they fail, it's all over for them. Who wants that kind of responsibility, no matter how much you make?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Verizon is PAYING your insurance THIS month while your wife is CHOOSING not to work. They agreed to do that (very generously, I think), for one month of a strike. Why *should* they pay your insurance while your wife is NOT DOING HER JOB any longer than that?

Also, I'm sure she is getting paid via the strike fund--isn't that the point of union dues?

Finally, let's point out that if she is getting paid half of $78/hr, that's still almost $40/hr, or $83,000 per year (plus that FREE health insurance). So it's not like we're talking about minimum wage workers facing awful safety conditions. Cry me a river--and tell your union leadership she wants to get back to work.

She is not getting the insurance for free asshole. She is working for the insurance. It is part of the compensation. Without unions we would all be earning peanuts while the CEO's would be raking in the big bucks. The problem is not the unions, but that there are not enough unions.

F***ng Reagan.

Actually, she's not working for the insurance. She's not working at all, and shouldn't be compensated for it. Verizon is definitely being gracious to keep the insurance going for people who aren't actually their employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Verizon is PAYING your insurance THIS month while your wife is CHOOSING not to work. They agreed to do that (very generously, I think), for one month of a strike. Why *should* they pay your insurance while your wife is NOT DOING HER JOB any longer than that?

Also, I'm sure she is getting paid via the strike fund--isn't that the point of union dues?

Finally, let's point out that if she is getting paid half of $78/hr, that's still almost $40/hr, or $83,000 per year (plus that FREE health insurance). So it's not like we're talking about minimum wage workers facing awful safety conditions. Cry me a river--and tell your union leadership she wants to get back to work.

She is not getting the insurance for free asshole. She is working for the insurance. It is part of the compensation. Without unions we would all be earning peanuts while the CEO's would be raking in the big bucks. The problem is not the unions, but that there are not enough unions.

F***ng Reagan.

Actually, she's not working for the insurance. She's not working at all, and shouldn't be compensated for it. Verizon is definitely being gracious to keep the insurance going for people who aren't actually their employees.

Trust me, there is nothing verizon is doing out of the goodness of there own heard. This was negotiated in advance from the last Collective Bargaining agreement. The worked for the the insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Verizon is PAYING your insurance THIS month while your wife is CHOOSING not to work. They agreed to do that (very generously, I think), for one month of a strike. Why *should* they pay your insurance while your wife is NOT DOING HER JOB any longer than that?

Also, I'm sure she is getting paid via the strike fund--isn't that the point of union dues?

Finally, let's point out that if she is getting paid half of $78/hr, that's still almost $40/hr, or $83,000 per year (plus that FREE health insurance). So it's not like we're talking about minimum wage workers facing awful safety conditions. Cry me a river--and tell your union leadership she wants to get back to work.

You are missing the point, It is not just her job she is striking over, Its the other people, she is standing in solidarity with them.

Are there other people in the union who ARE getting minimum wage and working in unsafe conditions? No. So she's standing in solidarity with her peers, who are also making good wages and getting benefits MUCH BETTER than most of the other people in the workforce. Lets face it--no one gets pensions any more. Even a frozen pension is better than none. And how many employers cover 100% of the cost of health insurance?

Layoffs suck; I get it, I really do. My DH has been laid off before. But i don't think a company should be forced to keep employing people they don't need any more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Verizon is PAYING your insurance THIS month while your wife is CHOOSING not to work. They agreed to do that (very generously, I think), for one month of a strike. Why *should* they pay your insurance while your wife is NOT DOING HER JOB any longer than that?

Also, I'm sure she is getting paid via the strike fund--isn't that the point of union dues?

Finally, let's point out that if she is getting paid half of $78/hr, that's still almost $40/hr, or $83,000 per year (plus that FREE health insurance). So it's not like we're talking about minimum wage workers facing awful safety conditions. Cry me a river--and tell your union leadership she wants to get back to work.

She is not getting the insurance for free asshole. She is working for the insurance. It is part of the compensation. Without unions we would all be earning peanuts while the CEO's would be raking in the big bucks. The problem is not the unions, but that there are not enough unions.

F***ng Reagan.

I don't want to join a union. I refuse to pay in order to work. I refuse to play games. I refuse to beat people who disagree with me. Unions are evil.

By the way - I don't want a CEO's job. They deserve that money, because when they fail, it's all over for them. Who wants that kind of responsibility, no matter how much you make?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Verizon is PAYING your insurance THIS month while your wife is CHOOSING not to work. They agreed to do that (very generously, I think), for one month of a strike. Why *should* they pay your insurance while your wife is NOT DOING HER JOB any longer than that?

Also, I'm sure she is getting paid via the strike fund--isn't that the point of union dues?

Finally, let's point out that if she is getting paid half of $78/hr, that's still almost $40/hr, or $83,000 per year (plus that FREE health insurance). So it's not like we're talking about minimum wage workers facing awful safety conditions. Cry me a river--and tell your union leadership she wants to get back to work.

She is not getting the insurance for free asshole. She is working for the insurance. It is part of the compensation. Without unions we would all be earning peanuts while the CEO's would be raking in the big bucks. The problem is not the unions, but that there are not enough unions.

F***ng Reagan.

I don't want to join a union. I refuse to pay in order to work. I refuse to play games. I refuse to beat people who disagree with me. Unions are evil.

By the way - I don't want a CEO's job. They deserve that money, because when they fail, it's all over for them. Who wants that kind of responsibility, no matter how much you make?

When they fail, they have a multimillion dollar golden parachute.

The reason why we need unions is because management can screw the employees individually with impunity. As a group -- a collective -- a union, the worker is on an equal footing. They can refuse to work en masse (strike). I can't strike against my employer as just me, but if all of us refused to work, the company would have no revenue.

Virginia is a right to work state; you can not be forced to join a union. Maryland is not. In which state are employees better protected? Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

I used to work at Verizon and did repair and installs during the 2011 strike. One of my two strongest memories (other than a striking worker in NJ screaming at my 25 year old female colleague from 3 feet away while she was working at a field terminal: "You fucking scab cunt whore") is a Facebook post by a union member saying that Verizon was screwing them over even during the strike by charging $20,000 year or or $1666 per month for COBRA. No, striking worker, that's how much Verizon was paying for your family's health insurance while management employees didn't have a pension and had to contribute a lot towards mediocre health coverage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Wife is the breadwinner in our family and is currently on strike.'They are on strike so their pensions they have worked hard for don't get frozen and call centers in the US don't get closed. There are call centers in rural areas that provide jobs for people, these employed people keep rural towns going. Verizon wants to close these centers and outsource to other countries.
This is worth fighting for.
She has no been paid for over a week now, meanwhile the person doing her job is getting $78 an hour, twice what she makes. We also lose our family health insurance at the end of this month.

Sorry your spouse is working extra days/hours OP but my wife would love to be working.

Verizon is PAYING your insurance THIS month while your wife is CHOOSING not to work. They agreed to do that (very generously, I think), for one month of a strike. Why *should* they pay your insurance while your wife is NOT DOING HER JOB any longer than that?

Also, I'm sure she is getting paid via the strike fund--isn't that the point of union dues?

Finally, let's point out that if she is getting paid half of $78/hr, that's still almost $40/hr, or $83,000 per year (plus that FREE health insurance). So it's not like we're talking about minimum wage workers facing awful safety conditions. Cry me a river--and tell your union leadership she wants to get back to work.

She is not getting the insurance for free asshole. She is working for the insurance. It is part of the compensation. Without unions we would all be earning peanuts while the CEO's would be raking in the big bucks. The problem is not the unions, but that there are not enough unions.

F***ng Reagan.

I don't want to join a union. I refuse to pay in order to work. I refuse to play games. I refuse to beat people who disagree with me. Unions are evil.

By the way - I don't want a CEO's job. They deserve that money, because when they fail, it's all over for them. Who wants that kind of responsibility, no matter how much you make?

When they fail, they have a multimillion dollar golden parachute.

The reason why we need unions is because management can screw the employees individually with impunity. As a group -- a collective -- a union, the worker is on an equal footing. They can refuse to work en masse (strike). I can't strike against my employer as just me, but if all of us refused to work, the company would have no revenue.

Virginia is a right to work state; you can not be forced to join a union. Maryland is not. In which state are employees better protected? Maryland.

Why they hell would you live somewhere that you can be forced to join a union? Pay someone to be able to work?

No thanks.

Right to work is the way to go.