TWU Local 100 Slams Corporate Greed, and Formally Adopts Verizon Picket Line on Montague Street

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MAY 25 -- Marching down Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights and bringing traffic to a halt, the Executive Board of TWU Local 100 proudly joined the picket line set up by the Communications Workers of America at the Verizon wireless location nearest our union headquarters. After taking over the street at the picket site, our Executive Board joined CWA workers in a march down the street and around the block, snarling traffic including totally stopping New York City Transit buses on Court Street.

The mid-day action was just the latest demonstration of TWU Local 100’s support for Verizon strikers. TWU Local 100 has already opened our Union Hall to the strikers, providing food and a place to rest while they face off against an employer who is bent on breaking their union and outsourcing their jobs overseas. The Verizon strike, now in its sixth week, is a bitter test of union solidarity. With company shares down 5% since the start of the strike, the strategy of withholding labor and shaming the company is starting to show some results. At the Verizon location on Montague, business is down 82% because of strike activity.

At stake is a generation of good union jobs, which would be eliminated if Verizon management succeeds in outsourcing call center jobs out of America  and aggressively fighting union attempts to organize its wireless stores. TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen, rallying the TWU troops at the picket line, declared that “the bastards at Verizon have got to go,” and pledged our steadfast support until the dispute is settled. Verizon's forcing the CWA to strike is especially vindictive because of the huge profits which Verizon is racking up on the backs of its employees.