Mass. VZ workers mustered outside their garages to their support for Calif. VZ workers.

by Mischa Gaus

“We’re starting off on the right foot—they’re back-pedaling,” said Carlos Castillon, president of Communications Workers (CWA) Local 9588 in Southern California. He added that members traveled from San Francisco, Sacramento, and San Diego to join in the rally and march. Their contract expires March 13.

And in a too-rare display of coast-to-coast solidarity, Verizon workers in New England mustered outside their garages this morning to show their support.

Wearing red, the union symbol of on-the-job presence in the telecoms, the Verizon New Englanders spent a half-hour outside before their shift in 10-degree weather talking about management’s attack on wages and working conditions. Then they marched in together just before shifts started, returning the same favor shown them in 2008, when California union members rallied to support the Verizon East workers’ contract campaign.

Photo: CWA Local 9588.

The California Verizon talks, covering about 5,000 workers, follow more than a year of hard bargaining nationwide with AT&T. About 70,000 CWA members at AT&T have accepted contracts with higher health care costs and worse benefits for new hires; about 40,000 more have rejected those terms.

Castillon predicts that Verizon will try for the same concessions, especially around health care. Verizon workers’ premiums are fully paid by the company. “Everybody should have the health care we do,” Castillon said, adding that union negotiators will once again try to win meaningful neutrality from Verizon to organize its growing wireless division. It’s been a goal since 2000, when Verizon agreed to “neither help nor hinder” in unionizing efforts. Since then, Verizon has systematically violated the agreement, threatening pro-union workers and closing pro-union shops.

Getting rid of workers, especially the better-paid, contract-savvy senior techs, has been a principal aim for both companies. AT&T reports it axed 20,000 workers last year, while Verizon said they eliminated 17,000. Thousands more layoffs are planned.

Both Verizon and AT&T made less money in 2009 than the year before—but both posted profits, $12.8 billion for AT&T and $3.6 billion for Verizon.

CWA and the Electrical Workers (IBEW) will face Verizon in negotiations next year on the East Coast. Don Trementozzi, CWA Local 1400 president in New Hampshire, emphasized the need for workers to stick together and fight as Verizon looks to sell more of its landline business to smaller telecom companies unable to provide good service or decent jobs.

California negotiators are trying for a three-year contract instead of a five-year deal to better coordinate future bargaining with the East Coast, Castillon said.

By next summer, the East Coast unions will be back at the table with management to negotiate a contract for about 85,000 Verizon workers between Maine to Virginia. What workers in California achieve will affect their future health care, pension benefits, job security, and organizing rights.