News Leader: Verizon workers, protesters, seek to ‘Unify Main Street’
media mention10:27 PM, Nov. 3, 2011
Written by Spencer Dennis
OLIVUE — It wasn’t a strike, and it wasn’t a protest.
As the Occupy movement seems to gain steam, local supporters are branching out and digging in.
“This is a barbecue,” said Donald Bush, a supporter of Occupy Staunton who, along with Verizon union workers, was one of about three dozen who attended the “Unify Main Street” event on Thursday at the Verizon plant in Jolivue. “This is only going to grow. We don’t know where it’s going to go, but it’s going to grow.
“We want our middle class back.”
Verizon union workers, who are working under an extension of their previous union contract with Verizon while continuing talks to negotiate a new contract, attended with their families, their red “CWA Local 2204” shirts, their grills and their populist, middle-class message.
“We need to show Verizon that we aren’t going anywhere, and we need more events like this,” union President Chuck Simpson said, addressing the crowd. “This is all about corporate greed. It would be different if Verizon were losing money, but they aren’t.”
Verizon has seen its profits drop in recent years, but still reported more than $10 billion in net income in 2010, when company Chairman Ivan Seidenburg earned $18.2 million.
Those numbers don’t sit well with workers who have been asked to accept cuts in benefits in recent negotiations.
“Money rules,” said Joedy Drulia, a Verizon engineer for 14 years. “Those with the money make the rules.”
Union representatives also believe that Verizon and other major companies are not paying their fair share while the middle class is being asked to make sacrifices and pay more.
“How ’bout that one percent giving their fair share?” Simpson asked the crowd. “How about CEOs chipping in?
“They’re not, because they don’t have to.”
Despite its profitability, Verizon had a negative tax liability of $703 million in 2010, meaning they actually made money after filing taxes, according to a report released by Citizens for Tax Justice, a nonprofit with strong union support, and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. A copy of the report was circulated at the event.
“The new CEO (of Verizon) makes $56,000 a day,” Simpson told his audience, many of whom earn less than that in a year. “We’re sick of it, we’re tired of it, and we’re not taking this crap anymore!”