Last week, two National Labor Relations Board directors charged Verizon Business with “interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of their rights,” to join a union. Verizon Business workers are organizing to join the Communication Workers of America and the Electric Workers.
Since Verizon Business workers went public with their intention to form a union in January 2007, 60 percent of eligible workers have signed union authorization forms. Yet, Verizon Business has threatened layoffs, illegally spied on workers and issued disciplinary warnings for conducting lawful union activity.
The charges were directed at the company’s facilities in Pittsburgh and Monsey, N.Y. Hearings are scheduled for Oct. 31 in Pittsburgh and Nov. 5 in New York City on these cases.
The fact that the directors of the NLRB—a government agency with a consistent record of anti-worker findings—made a statement of this kind is testimony to the struggle and organization of the workers for union recognition in the face of Verizon’s threats.
