Strikers Call Verizon "Poster Child" of Corporate Greed

36,000 Verizon Workers enter their sixth week on strike after failing to reach a contract agreement with the wireless phone giant on issues such as outsourcing, pensions, outside contractors & healthcare. Verizon, which, according to strike leaders pulls in $1.8 billion in profits each month, has retaliated by cancelling healthcare benefits for striking workers.

TYT's Eric Byler caught up with leaders of the largest strike in the United States since Verizon workers last walked off the job in 2011 with a work force of 45,000 workers. Shannon Opfer, President of the CWA Local 2107, and negotiator for Verizon workers in the Baltimore/Washington area, attributed the drop in number of employees to outsourcing 5,000 call center jobs to Mexico and the Philippines, contract labor, and the practice of encouraging early retirement and then replacing 3 workers with 2 who are forced to work time and a half, thus avoiding the cost of medical benefits for the third position that is not refilled.

Communications Workers of America (CWA) organized a picket in concert with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which represents some of Verizon Wireless' employees in New Jersey and New England. SEIU and other labor organizations turned out to show solidarity.

The workers have gone without a contract since August 1, 2015, and have been negotiating with Verizon since June 22, 2015. The strike began on April 13, 2016. Verizon has not recognized workers who have voted to unionize. Estimates put the cost of the strike at $200 million, thus far, in what would otherwise have been Verizon profits.