Hundreds face Layoff while thousands of jobs are contracted out.

NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and other city and state elected officials joined with hundreds of CWA members and leaders on the steps of City Hall November 12^th to call on Verizon to stop the layoffs of hundreds of workers across New York and New Jersey.

The layoff axe has already started to fall at Verizon.  Thirty five Verizon Business technicians were laid off in New York in September, as were 24 Customer Service Reps in New Jersey.  And hundreds of technicians in the New York metro area face layoff in the next days or weeks.

“Every one of these cuts means another middle class New Yorker out of work in the toughest job market in our lifetimes,” said District One Vice President Chris Shelton. “Verizon isn’t hurting. Last year they made more $6.4 billion, but instead of keeping jobs in New York, they’re laying people off and sending jobs out of state and overseas.”

Speaker Silver was joined by Public Advocate-elect Bill de Blasio, NYC Comptroller-elect John Liu, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, and NYC Central Labor Council President Jack Ahearn, all of whom pledged to use the power of their offices to pressure Verizon to put a stop to layoffs and outsourcing of jobs.  Working Families Party Executive Director Dan Cantor de nounced the greed of Verizon’s executives, who raked in $59 million in compensation in 2008.

Workers facing a layoff—and several already laid off—were also present at the rally. “In this economy, losing my job would be a real hardship, especially with a baby on the way,”  said Louis Calemine, an 1106 member from Queens whose job is on the chopping block. “ It’s wrong that a greedy corporation like Verizon is making billions in profits while still laying us off.” Marsha Richardson, a laid off Verizon Business worker from Local 1101, she told about life after her layoff in mid-September.

Verizon claims that it must reduce the workforce because of the decline in copper access lines, and to show Wall Street that it is cutting costs.

 But the truth is, these moves clearly violate contractual provisions that prohibit layoffs when our work is being contracted out—and thousands of jobs at the cost of tens of millions of dollars are currently being contracted.  It’s work that our members facing layoff can do, including:

• 787 DSL tech support jobs that have been contracted out to Mexico, India, Canada and the Phillipines.
• Hundreds of jobs on both sides of the river marketing FIOS door to door.
• At least 500 customer service jobs, including staffing Verizon Wireless kiosks in malls and big box stores, taking billing inquiry calls, and staffing marketing events.
• 700 outside plant jobs such as flagging and placing buried cable.

The company admits that in the first half of 2009 alone, it spent nearly $41 million contracting out the work of nearly 1,000 outside plant technicians!  Tens of millions more were spent on other contracting initiatives.

 The first salvo in our campaign against Verizon layoffs came at a rally and picket in Newark on September 30^th against the New Jersey layoffs. Thanks to Senator Ron Rice and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho for showing their support. 

 Starting November 14^th, CWA activists will be leafleting Verizon Wireless stores to let customers know the truth about how Verizon treats its workforce.

This is only the beginning of CWA’s Fight for Good Jobs at Verizon!