Video: Striking Verizon Worker Uses Daughter To Block Scab's Truck

45,000 Verizon landline workers have been on strike since Sunday, in the largest strike America's seen in years. The unions and Big Red are locked in a bitter battle over proposed cuts to union benefits, which executives claim are necessary because of the bad economy and the company's less lucrative landline division. Unions, of course, scoff at that premise—pointing to the executives' high salaries and the landline division's profit increases—and are digging in for a long fight. In this video, you can see they mean business (warning: the worker's salty talk maybe NSFW):

Scattered reports of violence are emerging: Verizon executives say a worker fired a BB gun at a co-worker who crossed the picket line in the Bronx, and the Daily News reports that strikers "pushed a nonstriking worker into scaffolding in Albany—and crowded around workers at a Manhattan manhole and refused to leave when police were called." Fiber optic circuit boxes on Staten Island have also been sabotaged. The Communications Workers of America issued a statement saying, "Our unions do not condone violence in any form. Safety is paramount, and that's why we're also calling on Verizon to make sure that our members on the picket lines aren't hurt by replacement workers and management while the strike continues."

According to NJ.com, Verizon managers and non-union workers have driven company vehicles dangerously close to picketers, and in one instance a striker was actually hit, knocked unconscious, and suffered a concussion at a picket line in Howell, New Jersey. Yesterday, Verizon filed a lawsuit in five Eastern states, seeking a court order "to limit picketing and stop what it claims is harassment, sabotage and blocking access to its facilities," the AP reports.

For more on the financial dispute between the unions and Verizon, the Times has a thorough report. The takeaway is that Verizon Wireless is hugely profitable company with an operating income of $9 billion in the first six months of 2011, while the landline business had operating income of "just" $606 million. But Verizon Wireless is a mostly nonunion venture in which Verizon is majority shareholder.

George Kohl, a union rep, points out that Verizon used billions of dollars in profits from the landline business to finance its expansion into wireless. "The wireline guys sweated day by day to make the profits to create wireless," Kohl tells the Times. "And now they want to take away the middle-class life from the wireline employees who made the investment in wireless possible."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on August 11, 2011 2:23 PM

Comments [rss]

big_scum_bag

You strike, I cross...I do it for the money...if you don't want me to cross, then suck it up and go to work. You claim to be middle class? I happen to know what you all make. in pa your base is close to 70, with overtime most of you hit over 100 thou....you can afford to pay for some of your benifits...you talk about vz being greedy? If the shoe fits.....WTF, keep striking, I don't care, more money in my pocket evertime I cross, and you know what, for a scum bag, they pay me very, very well...Yep, I am a scab, and I am proud to say so!

big_scum_bag

I am a scumbag...I will cross to make money.

tfrionli

To the creator of the title of this video..... how do you know she is being used? Maybe she is standing with her father to protect his and her way of life? Perhaps if he and she just curled up on the side of the road and took whatever scraps that are thrown their way, YOU would be happy.. ?.

Guest

Verizon Pushes for $1 Billion in Concessions from Workers, While Receiving Nearly $1 Billion in Subsidies from Uncle Sam

http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticed...

ohgodkillmenow

George Kohl, a union rep, points out that Verizon used billions of dollars in profits from the landline business to finance its expansion into wireless. "The wireline guys sweated day by day to make the profits to create wireless," Kohl tells the Times. "And now they want to take away the middle-class life from the wireline employees who made the investment in wireless possible."

Maybe this George fellow failed to understand that how a company allocates funds (and runs its operations on the whole) is their business and nobody else's. But if the retard feels a venture into funding decisions and ethics is really necessary here, then lets not forget how the blame for having no vision regarding the position of landline vs wireless/data in the market falls squarely on the shoulders of the workers who chose (choosing: that thing you do when someone is *not* pointing a gun at your head) to work in the landline market.

gaelic47

My father worked for Verizon (AT&T, Bell Atlantic, NY TEL NYNEX, wt al) and was a member of CWA 1101 from 69 to his retirement in 2002. What you don't understand is that management has provided this level of benefits for years and has always claimed poverty, yet they have NEVER had a quarter where they did not return profits to their share holders. Furthermore, what you don't understand is that CWA 1101 and their brothers and sisters in other local unions have prevailed in this fight against the company before, no matter how long the fight lasted. 9 months in 73 and 84, 6 months in 89/90, and 1 month in 98, amongst other strikes. This is a fight they have won before, and they will win this one as well.

ohgodkillmenow

That's great, except, EXCEPT...you sorta missed my point, which is this: if you don't like your current working conditions, or you don't agree with the mission, then go work somewhere else. Nobody owes you a job, let alone any benefits that may come with it.

gaelic47

No, I didn't miss your point. Since they have a contract with your union, and you have seniority, they do owe you a job and the benefits that come with it.

Let's say you're not in a union. Your boss turns around and says "Hey, we need to cut your salary xx% and pull your benefits." Would you do something about it? Of course you should, and I see no reason why union workers should react any differently.

gaelic47

first line should have read "et al" not "wt al".

felixthecat

Ok so would you peeps call then terrorists? Property damage, using kids, threats, etc ....

First Name Last Name

I understand that the guy is hurting financially (who isn't?), but don't stick your daughter in harm's way. Gotta wonder what the kid is thinking. She learned a valuable lesson in sticking up for oneself, which is good. But she could have learned that by sitting on the sidelines and watching had dad go at it with the driver. Putting her in front of a truck....man, all sorts of bad things could have happened.

Guest

Support the verizon workers and the union. Unions made this country and can also save it. Scabs are scum....... DO NOT CROSS PICKET LINES

Wasseka

Whether the strikers' cause is good or bad, this is a horrendous example of parenting! The person driving the truck is probably a Verizon manager who is being forced to do this work so that he may keep his job and the benefits for which he pays. Chances are good that he has children too. The union employees have had a good deal and I don't begrudge them the benefits they have had, but using his daughter and being low and vulgar about it...that's just low and vulgar.

First Name Last Name

...and dangerous.

JMase

Verizon or Strikers, I dont really care, but what I just cannot understand is putting your daughter in harms way like this just for the sake of making a point. Especially to guys who obviously dont give a shit about you anyway. I mean, what if the guy behind the wheel was having a bad day and just snapped and slammed on the gas?? what if the truck had some kind of Toyota-like malfunction and lurched forward and ran her over?? I mean what the fuck !?!? I hope somone forwards this video to social services and threatens to take the dumb bald fuk's daughter away from him. What a fuking asshole.

iam draize

F the scabs. F the corporations.

The basic necessities for a decent life are being taken away from people...don't support the unions now?

Just Wait. They are going to cut your insurance, retirement, schools, libraries, parks....the rich are already more powerful than the government, just wait they take more and more and more, eventually you'll come around.

Brooklyn6

I can't take picketers seriously who dress in pastel tank tops and Oakleys.

Vinny

"That's who you're hurtin, right there scumbag. Now go stand in front of the truck, honey. It's okay. Daddy loves you. You are a scumbag for hurting my family."

So hysterical.

FU Boy

I've got no love for these fools. Verizon's probably the worst when it comes to poorly educated workers and overkill for needing 'specialists' pushed on the company by unionization.

Two months ago my company had a new data line put into a new office. It required: Two people to run the line during the first visit. A different person to install the router during the second visit. Another person to configure the router during the third visit. Two people to test the line on the fourth visit, since it wasn't working properly. And one tech to come by and verify that the line was, in fact, working on a fifth visit.

Of course, this doesn't count the stupidity of Verizon techs who 'accidentally' cut a bundle of wire in the street, and took down service two full blocks of downtown.