The customer is ALWAYS RIGHT!
“The fingerpointing from the customer base was going to the corporation and not the union’’
No static on that call.
"Verizon workers end their walkout; No deal reached; union strike had strained service" August 21, 2011|By Taryn Luna, Globe Correspondent
The Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers agreed yesterday to end one of the largest strikes in a decade without winning a new contract agreement, sending their 45,000 members back to work at Verizon Communications Inc. nearly two weeks after walking off the job.
Workers from Massachusetts to Virginia will return to their posts in the company’s landline division tomorrow evening under the terms of the previous contract, as negotiations on a new bargaining agreement continue between the two sides next week.
Since the strike began Aug. 7, the unions said they would call it off when the telecommunications company agreed to bargain on key issues such as pensions, health care, and job security....
The 13-day strike was unusual because it occurred during an economic downturn and a period of high unemployment. Tensions were high as striking workers gave up paychecks and complaints from Verizon customers piled up....
Gene Carroll, director of the Union Leadership Institute at Cornell University, said the mounting pressures after nearly two weeks of demonstrations likely caused both sides to push harder toward a resolution.
“The increasing amount of complaints from customers about not being able to get proper service, and the fingerpointing from the customer base was going to the corporation and not the union,’’ he said....
Carroll said that only a new collective bargaining agreement can bring resolution. “The union still has the option to go back on the picket lines, and that hangs over the head of the company,’’ he said....
Although the company originally claimed that the strike should not affect customers, a Verizon spokesman acknowledged on Friday that the company could not meet the level of service previously provided by the striking workers....
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Also see: Strike is over, but not the sparring
Verizon Workers Turn Violent
