http://blog.timesunion.com/hoffmanfiles/the-verizon-strikers-righteous-or-a-nuisance/8171/
Robert S. Hoffman's photo.
Verizon’s striking workers, bringing righteous indignation to the conservative town of Clifton Park. (Hoffman Collection)
One of the things that people who live in suburbia love to complain about is that nothing interesting ever happens. However, just this past Saturday, organized labor made its stand in the Republican dominated hamlet of Clifton Park, New York. It would appear that Verizon workers are on strike, and this time, they were taking the fight to “the man”!
Verizon workers let the world know that their employer is greedy and only interested in the bottom line. The company obviously sees it quite differently. Some people are inclined to back labor, while others tend to favor the arguments put forth by the corporation. As the immortal Florence Reece once sang, “Which side are you on?” (Times Union)
What is it that these modern day “Joe Hill’s” seek you ask? Well, according to CNN.com, 36,000 Verizon workers have decided to walk out since May 4th due to the fact that Verizon has “off-shored” thousands of jobs so they can close call-centers here in the United States, and give them to non-unionized workers overseas for about $6 per hour. Verizon technicians have also been vocal regarding their complaints over being sent more than 100 miles away from their families to work on jobs with very little notice.
(Nothing warms the heart quite like a Joan Baez pro-labor song. I wonder what Joe Hill would think about workers striking who make over $80,000 per-year? You Tube)
For what it’s worth, Verizon sees the matter somewhat differently. They claim that these workers are exaggerating the distances that they are being sent for their jobs, and that we should remember that many of these workers earn over $130,000 dollars per year in salary and benefits. This is not exactly the stuff of “Mother Jones” or John L. Lewis!
I’ve always been a firm believer that every American should have a favorite union organizer. My boy is John L. Lewis, a man whose eyebrows made it quite clear to all involved that the working man was not going to take any more guff from the boss! (Getty Images)
I am no stranger to union/management skirmishes. As a teacher, I have been paying union dues for 26 years and counting. I have also served as my union’s grievance chairperson, vice-president, and president. I can tell you with the utmost sincerity and clarity, serving as the head of a union is literally the definition of a thankless job. If “Serving as a Union President“ , were the title of a book, the subtitle would be: “How to make enemies, while disappointing friends and co-workers“. I didn’t so much as “burn-out” as union president as much as I faded away. I began to realize that I was no longer taking the people that came to me with their complaints seriously, and that’s when I knew it was time to pass the torch to a new glutton for punishment.
Chicago public school teachers striking outside the Chicago Board of Education back in 2012. In New York State, thanks to the Taylor Law, teachers who go on strike can be asked to pay hefty fines, and their leaders could end up going to jail. As you might expect, I worked hard to discourage such “crazy talk” while I was RTA President. It’s not that I didn’t believe in our cause, it’s just that I didn’t like the idea of having to pee in a jail cell in front of other men. They say Gandhi had the same concern. (New York Times)
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that leading a union, (particularly a teacher’s union) isn’t a worthwhile endeavor, it’s just that it is personally draining. Remember, everybody’s problem at work, is now your problem. I’m lucky, most of my days as a teacher aren’t too bad. There were many days when I was preparing to leave for the day in a good mood, generally satisfied by the the way the day went, when all of a sudden I would be stopped by a teacher who just had an issue regarding the administration. This would cause me to want to lash out at the district. Other days I would be summoned to the Superintendent’s office so he could go off on me over some alleged unprofessional action taken by one of my colleagues. This would in turn leave me feeling exasperated towards one of the teachers I was supposed to be representing. Either way I would now find myself driving home feeling uptight over how horrible the day went, when in reality, I was now in a bad mood over somebody else’s bad day!
Robert S. Hoffman's photo.
I still believe in it, but I just want somebody else to fight for it. Is that so wrong? (Hoffman Collection)
I only had to walk a picket-line once, and that was when I was teaching in Long Island City at J.H.S. 204. Teachers in New York City were working without a contract, and surprise, surprise, the city was broke for a change. David Dinkins was the mayor. Dinkins was a big liberal who ran with an endorsement from the New York City United Federation of Teachers. He then turned around and played hardball when it came to negotiations. We of course had to demonstrate that we meant business, so before the start of the school day, we engaged in some informational picketing. It didn’t work, although I would point out that Dinkins was defeated in his quest for a second term by noted teacher-basher Rudolph Giuliani. I guess the information we provided in our picket didn’t help much.
The “Dink”, David Dinkins. I don’t think he was a bad guy, just not up to the job of being Mayor of New York City.I was actually excited to vote for him in 1989, and while I thought he turned out to be pretty awful, he doesn’t go down as my worst vote ever. That honor is reserved for the current Governor of New York State! (Getty Images)
I’ve also been on the other side of the striking worker issue. When I first graduated college and I was still living at home in North Massapequa, I , like seemingly everybody else on Long Island took the Long Island Railroad into the city for work. However, in early 1987, the Long Island Railroad workers went on strike. There were approximately nine unions who operated the railroad, and their responsibilities varied from conductor to clean-up crew. They were an excpetionately tight group, and if one union went on strike, all of the other unions would honor the striking workers. While many “liberals” and others love to claim that they respect the need for working people to make a living while enjoying safe working conditions with fair benefits, being inconvenienced changed the equation somewhat.
The lifeblood of every Long Island commuter into New York City, the LIRR! Its service was actually pretty consistent, but on a day when it was off, it could ruin the start or the end of any good Long Islander’s day. (New York Times)
For those of you unfamiliar with Long Island/New York City traffic patterns, driving to and from the city during rush hour simply isn’t done unless you are exceptionally patient, or really have no place to go. It’s certainly not to be attempted during a LIRR strike. Therefore, one has to have ingenuity and a little bit of good fortune. Luckily I had (and still have) a brother who lives in Queens, so I simply stayed with him for the week and took the subway. (Thanks bro, by the way.) For others though, the week was a complete horror show, with a snowstorm mixed in just for good measure.
LIRR riders were torn over who to blame for this sorry state of affairs. Some people were angry at management, while others believed that these LIRR workers, some of whom were basically unskilled labor, were already overpaid, and that they had nerve going on strike, However, the only issue everybody involved really cared about was how much they were inconvenienced.
This is why you take the LIRR if you live on Long Island and work in Manhattan. Sometimes the traffic lets up around 3am, but then it picks up again by 4am. (Getty Images)
All of this brings me back to Verizon and its striking workers. Senator and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has injected himself into the Verizon situation. Sanders has landed squarely on the side of the workers, even getting himself into a verbal joust with some of the brass at Verizon. Bernie’s throngs of young supporters applaud his efforts to cheer on the working men and women who are currently striking against Verizon.
(The eternal struggle, labor vs. management. Which side are you on? You Tube)
However, and call me a cynic if you wish, but I can’t help but wonder what these young social media hounds would do if their ability to “connect” were to be constricted due to a loss of services brought on by the fact that so many thousands of Verizon workers were presently on strike? Would their outrage over the loss of their ability to communicate via texting, tweeting, Snapchat and Instagram give them pause in their full-throated support for these very same workers they claim to be cheering for?
Are you willing to look up, and support the hard working union employees of Verizon? If so, signify by looking up, or at least send me a snapchat of you agreeing with me. (New York Times)
When it comes to labor struggles, not surprisingly, I tend to lean towards the workers. However, if I were to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t so “progressive” in my thinking when it came to the striking LIRR workers when it affected my ability to get to work. We all want the American people to make as much money as possible, or so we say. We all want to buy products made in America, or so we say.
Millions of people who have never really participated in our democracy before now find themselves either supporting Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders over these very issues. However, are they aware of exactly what they are asking for? Bernie supporters wish to see increases in salary and more American manufacturing. Are they truly willing to pay more for the products they wish to see made here in America by highly paid American workers? What of Trump supporters? They are angry over the loss of factory jobs leaving for China and Mexico, but are they willing to pay the price for what it would cost to manufacture these goods in America?
You know, on a personal note, it just occurred to me that I never thanked the people who made by very affordable HP Printer. So to all of those who assembled the device, let me personally say to all of you, “xiexie”
I suppose at the end of the day, I’m a union man at heart, and so I will be rooting for the working class heroes picketing their hearts out against the “swells” at Verizon. My Verizon bill is already through the roof, and since you need a PhD from MIT to figure out the bill, somebody might as well make some money off the deal. Why not let it be the C.W.A., or Communications Workers of America?
Is there anything more powerful than the raised fist? (You Tube)
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