anyone else's spouse on strike duty for Verizon?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You can believe that, and one day, your job is outsourced. And you are told to train your replacement. If everyone says no, it does not happen. If one person says no, he is fired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You can believe that, and one day, your job is outsourced. And you are told to train your replacement. If everyone says no, it does not happen. If one person says no, he is fired.

Won't happen, since I have a skill set that is hard to find.

I'm sorry you fear for your job, but perhaps some education and possibly job skills training is in order? Community colleges can be helpful for this if you can't afford a university or private training.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You can believe that, and one day, your job is outsourced. And you are told to train your replacement. If everyone says no, it does not happen. If one person says no, he is fired.

Won't happen, since I have a skill set that is hard to find.

I'm sorry you fear for your job, but perhaps some education and possibly job skills training is in order? Community colleges can be helpful for this if you can't afford a university or private training.

I don't fear for my job. I am a PhD scientist with a high clearance. My work can not be outsourced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 ...

Union negotiator here. essentially because it would weaken a negotiating position. Union leaders (and union members), would never admit that they have a sweetheart deal publicly (perhaps behind closed doors in a negotiation they'd begrudgingly agree) - it would appear to the membership that they aren't "tough" on management.

The other reason is that many of them really don't believe they do. They feel genuinely slighted and pissed off. Take Verizon for instance: their chief complaint is one of work rules around possibly being asked to travel 100 miles. I feel for them as that's quite far (and I suspect purely a sticking point for Verizon to obtain some other concession), but they'd never say "Okay, you know what, your right. Paying someone with a high school degree $85,000 a year is pretty out there. We accept that's high." Instead they'd likely say "These rules are onerous and we need a 10% pay raise because XYZ" or "Well agree to a maximum of 50 miles of you agree to a 5% pay raise guaranteed for X years."

It's all negotiation. Admitting that any part of their comp or benefits are anything other than awful hurts odds of re-election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You can believe that, and one day, your job is outsourced. And you are told to train your replacement. If everyone says no, it does not happen. If one person says no, he is fired.

If you are going to support unions, you need to get your facts straight. Do you not remember all of the auto layoffs in the 80s and 90s as Ford etc closed their plants in the US and opened locations oversees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You can believe that, and one day, your job is outsourced. And you are told to train your replacement. If everyone says no, it does not happen. If one person says no, he is fired.

If you are going to support unions, you need to get your facts straight. Do you not remember all of the auto layoffs in the 80s and 90s as Ford etc closed their plants in the US and opened locations oversees?

All of that started with the weakening of the unions starting in 1981 (Jan 20 specifically). It really gets to the trickle down economy that was advocated. Let the rich get richer, and they will spend more. Only it has not worked.

The big problem, though, that the auto companies had was that they were building horrible products in the 70's-90's. Fort Pinto? Chevy Chevette? These were not horrible because of the construction, but the design -- the specific decisions to cheapen construction to save a few bucks. In the case of the Pinto, there were memos that showed that Ford knew of the fire risk, but decided the cost of fixing it was too high; they were better off financially covering it up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto. That type of short sighted thinking lead to the reduction in sales. It was not the cost of manufacturing. Heck, the Japanese and European manufacturers build cars here.

[Anonymous]

more than one month later and the strike slogs on...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:more than one month later and the strike slogs on...

They could always, you know, go back to work.

[Anonymous]

I wish I could suspend my FioS for the duration of the strike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A striking employee was complaining that they used "to have unlimited sick time now only have 10 days." They must live in some bubble, whining about 10 days.

My husband, not with Verizon, works with union employees and they are the worst.

I have over 300 hours of sick leave. Doesn't it carry over for most people?

10 days is crap.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure they understand what "frozen pension" means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A striking employee was complaining that they used "to have unlimited sick time now only have 10 days." They must live in some bubble, whining about 10 days.

My husband, not with Verizon, works with union employees and they are the worst.

I have over 300 hours of sick leave. Doesn't it carry over for most people?

10 days is crap.

I'm a retired VZ employee, we never had unlimited sick leave. If you went over a certain number of days, 4?, discipline came into the picture. The supervisor was supposed to visit the first day sick. One time I wasn't there when he showed. Was at Doctor. he called my Doc's office to check. They told him it was none of his business. Started a big SNAFU.

They shoot themselves in the foot. A one day not feeling well turns into four days because of their policy. Just get a prescription from the doc and it becomes FMLA, BUT you have to stay out four days for an FMLA case.

If you are on disability , surgery etc, the require you to call in every day. Had a heart problem, THEIR disability people approved me for three weeks, but I had to call in every day. So I called their cell phone at 3 or 4AM, a few times until answered.

VZ management if fucked up, I'm glad my bad dream is over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:more than one month later and the strike slogs on...

They could always, you know, go back to work.

Yep. I'm OP. My DH is still out there, covering these jobs. I am really quite over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^yes, that is exactly what i mean. they are working 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week. they are also manning 411 call centers and internal call/dispatch centers.

see how easy it is to replace people who are on strike? I hope they say stay on strike and see ya....

unions need to go times have changed the only people benefitting from unions are the union managers.

+1.