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News :: Human Rights : Labor : Organizing |
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Telephone workers picket home of Verizon General Manager to support the FiOS Five |
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by Rand Wilson
Email: rand (nospam) mindspring.com (unverified!)
Address: 1137 Washington Street, Dorchester, MA 02124 |
18 Nov 2007
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On Sunday morning Nov. 18, more than 50 telephone workers picketed the home of Ellen Corcoran, General Manager of Verizon New England. Union members are upset that Verizon’s relentless push for unreasonable and unattainable production quotas is putting workers and the public at risk. |
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Click on this link to see photos of the picket. http://picasaweb.google.com/randwilson.aflcio/PicketAtEllenCorcoranSHous
In late October, a 34-year Verizon splice service technician was electrocuted while working in a bucket truck in Plymouth, MA. Telephone workers were particularly outraged because it was third workplace fatality in the last 18 months.
Just four days after this tragedy, Verizon fired five FiOS technicians for not meeting production quotas. These technicians were held to an arbitrary standard that is not being evenly applied to all FiOS installers. And it is especially appalling right after one of our co-workers was killed.
The “FiOS Five” are new employees with less than 12 months service. With less than a year of service they were not eligible to have a neutral arbitrator decide the merits of their terminations. Verizon fired them just as they were approaching their 12-month service dates.
The real reason the FiOS techs were terminated is because as new hires, they were vulnerable. Verizon’s management wanted to send a message to the rest of its employees – forget about safety, work faster! |
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See also:
http://picasaweb.google.com/randwilson.aflcio/PicketAtEllenCorcoranSHouseToSupportTheFiOSFive
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This work is in the public domain. |
