Verizon workers take to streets the second week of their strike
Tens of thousands of workers of the US communications giant, Verizon, have gone on strike again over low wages and job insecurity.
Some 40,000 Verizon Communications Inc workers across the East Coast walked off their jobs and took to the streets amid a contract dispute on Monday.
The striking workers chanted, whistled, and used noisemakers in order to make their demands heard.
The work stoppage started six days ago due to concerns over wage security and Verizon's decision to move jobs out of the US to the Philippines, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
Two unions — the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) — have organized the protest.
Verizon says employees from other departments across the US were being sent to replace the striking workers.
The strike was sparked after talks between the unions and Verizon over the company's plans to cut healthcare and pension-related benefits over a three-year period hit an impasse last week.
The previous agreement expired in August and thousands of workers have been without a contract ever since.
In reaction, Verizon slammed the move and said it had trained thousands of non-union employees over the past year to ensure no disruption in services.
“It’s regrettable that union leaders have called a strike, a move that hurts all of our employees,” Marc Reed, Verizon’s chief administrative officer, said last week.
US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who is competing against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to win the party’s nomination, has also backed the strike by Verizon workers.
Despite posting record profits in wireless business, Verizon has been losing its wireline customers and to help make up for the losses, it continues to offload some of its wireline assets and workers to countries like Mexico, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic. The company says it saved $300 million in employee costs in 2015.
This is while, Verizon’s wireline business still managed to post an $8.9 billion operating profit last year, slightly down from 2014.
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