Saturday, August 20, 2011

Guess Who Blinked First?



After weeks of protests, intimidation, picketing in front of people's homes, destruction of company equipment,  threatening workers, stockholders and average citizens, the union has caved in.
NEW YORK -- Thousands of striking Verizon workers will return to work Tuesday, though their contract dispute isn't over yet.

The 45,000 employees, who have been on strike since Aug. 7, agreed to return to work while they negotiate with Verizon Communications Inc. on the terms of a new contract. The workers are employed in nine states from Massachusetts to Virginia in the landline division.

Among the issues in dispute is the company's move to freeze pensions and its demand that workers contribute to their health insurance premiums. The company argues that it has to reduce benefits as the landline business deteriorates. More Americans are forgoing such lines in favor of mobile phones.

The employees' unions say the company is profitable and can afford to maintain the benefits.

For now, the two sides say they have narrowed their disagreements and have agreed on a structure for the negotiations. The workers will return to work under the terms of a contract that expired Aug. 6.

"The major issues remain to be discussed, but overall, issues now are focused and narrowed," the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said in a statement.

Marc Reed, Verizon's executive vice president of human resources, credited the company's managers with "ably meeting the needs of our customers" during the 14-day strike. This enabled the company to "withstand the strike without significant disruption to customer service," he said.

The company said it will "quickly address any backlog in repairs and unfulfilled requests for service."

Source
It is becoming apparent that the average Joe on the street is getting fed up with union thugs attacking people, protesting outside the homes of executives, and holding protests in State Capitals.

1 comment:

PatriotUSA said...

I feel no sympathy at all for these morons or ANYONE who is stupid enough to go on strike right now when the economy sucks like it does.

Unions, not all of them are very much out of touch with reality, especially for public employees where there is NO competition. I work with people who are represented by the SEIU and that is one of, if not the worst union out there. Many of people are spoiled brats of entitlement and have no clue what it is like to work within the private sector and have to actually pay for a much larger portion of your benefits. Had they remained on strike they would have deserved to get fired and replaced, period!