Members of Socialist Alternative join striking Verizon workers on a picket line outside a Verizon Wireless store in Brooklyn, New York, May 15, 2016. (Photo: Matt Surrusco)
At the base of three escalators, tucked in a corner of a Brooklyn mall, striking Verizon workers and their supporters said they’re standing up to the company’s corporate greed.
The workers, joined by about a dozen supporters, formed a picket line outside a Verizon Wireless retail store in the Atlantic Terminal Mall near downtown Brooklyn on Sunday, calling for job security, a fair union contract and an end to outsourcing.
“You give away your life for this company, and they want to take away your job.”
Some 36,000 Verizon employees, mostly “wireline” or landline workers, represented by Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) have been on strike since April 13. The protest in Brooklyn was part of CWA’s campaign calling on community groups to “adopt” Verizon retail stores to picket in solidarity with striking workers.
On Sunday, members of Socialist Alternative’s Brooklyn and Manhattan groups protested with workers in Brooklyn and outside another retail store in Harlem.
A majority of Verizon Wireless retail workers in six New York City stores voted to join CWA in May 2014, but have yet to secure a contract with the company. However, most Verizon retail workers are not union members.
One Verizon central office technician, a union member who has worked with the company for 20 years, and asked that his name not be published, said he was on the picket line “to fight against corporate greed.”
The worker, a 43-year-old single father of an 18-month-old daughter, said that after Verizon cut striking employees’ health care benefits two weeks ago, he was forced to purchase insurance for himself and his child.
“You give away your life for this company, and they want to take away your job,” he told Truthout. “If they are able to break down this union,…