Can You Hear Me Now?: Verizon Employees Protest Labor Contract

Dozens of Verizon employees took to the busy Tower Hill Road on Monday to protest the company's new labor contract which would impact nearly a fifth of its work force, including residents of southern Rhode Isand. The group, associated with the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, gathered Monday at 3009 Tower Hill Road in Saunderstown to insist Verizon soften the edges on a new contract.

"We just want to go back to work—that's all we want to do," said Tom Plunkett, a South Kingstown resident and longtime Verizon employee.

Plunkett and his fellow union members represent a fraction of the Verizon employees that went on strike Sunday after nationwide negotiations to renew an expired labor contract hit a standstill Saturday night. 

Verizon workers also took to the to protest along Route 2.

According to an article in the Huffington Post, Verizon is asking those affected to agree to more than 100 concessions pertaining to employee health care, pensions and work rules. 

"One of the primary issues is the ability of the company to send jobs overseas," Plunkett said. "We're dead-set against that," he said, adding more than 300 Rhode Islanders could lose their jobs to someone overseas if Verizon's stipulations are met.

What will it take to keep those jobs in Rhode Island?

"For the company to realize that we need to keep this state working," Plunkett said. "We pay taxes. We use local goods. We have mortgages in the community," he said.

The best-case scenario "is that [Verizon] will not arbitrarily move work out of Rhode Island or the country," Plunkett said. "We work for a corporation that made over $24 billion in profits over the last two years," he said. "I don't know what type of concession they'd be looking for."

Narragansett resident Tim McCarthy has worked for Verizon for nearly 25 years and agrees with Plunkett: Verizon is a successful corporation but its success needs to be reflected in those who have made the company what it is.

"It's a successful company and we're very happy [about that], but we do contribute to that success," said Plunkett.

"We helped make that company," added McCarthy. 

While some criticize the Verizon employees for going on strike at a time when so many are out of work, "At what point do you draw the line?" asked Plunkett.

"We work hard," Plunkett said. "We should be paid well, and it's time for the American people to say, 'No more.'"

"We're not gonna agree to concessions and any gains that the union's made over the last 50 years," Plunkett said. "They want everything back in one fell swoop and that's not gonna happen," he said.

According to Plunkett, he and other members of I.B.E.W. will continue to protest Verizon's contractual stipulations until both sides are amenable.