VERIZON - An ALEC Member

IMO -
The unions are all wasting valuable time and money fighting individual companies when they should be fighting against ALEC.

Four times a year the members of the American Legislative Exchange Council - ALEC - public and corporate sector members come together to see what havoc they can construct to destroy the middle class and turn the United States into a third world country.

Cheap wages, no benefits and especially no unions is the goal.

Take Verizon for an example - here's some info about the background of the stirke.


_______________________

"This is totally unacceptable coming from a company that it had plenty of money to pay

$10 billion to shareholders this year, and

$258 million to its top five executives over the last four years."

it had $22 billion in profits the last four years.

... have put forth proposals to

slash paid sick days,

freeze pensions for existing employees

eliminate pensions for new hires,

gut our health care plans

end wage progression,

eliminate job security language,

reduce the number of paid holidays (including Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Veterans Day),

and transfer without limitations customer service and technical support work out of state and overseas.

...  like getting the workers to pay at least $1,200 more a year toward health coverage.  ..  Verizon officials say they want the workers to pay $1,200 to $3,000 annually in premiums, depending on the plan, with an average of $1,450.

“Verizon is asking for deep concessions, but it’s not offering any quid pro quo, such as more job security,” he said

Verizon sends thousands of jobs to non-union contractors in the U.S. and in other countries that almost invariably pay lower wages and less in benefits. All kinds of work is being contracted, including: (Some of these may not apply in every state.)

·         Customer sales & service

·         Billing

·         Fiber Solutions Center

·         DSL desktop support

·         In-home installation and networking

·         Inside wire

·         Door-to-door sales of FiOS

·         VZ Business monitoring work

Verizon already has outsourced some 25,000 jobs. It’s trying to destroy middle-class jobs and the middle-class standard of living that workers have gained over the past 50 years.

The rich get richer and the rest of us get screwed - becausetheycan.