Last Monday, hundreds of New Jersey union workers continued their protest outside the Statehouse demanding for Verizon to back off contract demands that incited almost 40,000 wire line workers in the East Coast to strike.
Labor union members, including those with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Communication Workers of America denounced the contract negotiations and "corporate greed" that drives a company to cut back employee benefits despite its earnings of $39 billion in the last three years.
The striking Verizon workers were joined by members of the Democratic Party belonging to the U.S. Congress as well as Democrats from the Senate and Assembly in New Jersey, who believed that the strike is larger than Verizon.
"Many of us in Congress are in solidarity with you," said Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.), a U.S. congressman.
But to Hetty Rosenstein, the director of the Communication Workers of America, New Jersey, the current workers strike is all about work conditions and job security. She said that there's more to it than what is at stake for Verizon workers, and that is about the preservation of some of America's core values.
"It's also about whether or not we have any kind of an America, a country, where people work hard all of their lives and the people they work for feel some responsibility to them, some responsibility to the people that they serve," said Rosenstein on the Backgrounder Podcast.
The strike is now going into its second week. It was pushed through when the CWA New Jersey together with other labor unions was preparing to push the passage of a constitutional amendment which would call for the state to make regular payments to public pensions.
However, Rich Young, a spokesman for Verizon said the company's priority is to reach a fair contract and to get employees back to work.
"Contracts are reached at the bargaining table and not at rallies on the steps of the Statehouse in Trenton," said Young on Monday.
"These events do nothing to advance the process. We stand committed to reaching a fair contract that's good for our employees, our customers and positions Verizon's wire line unit on a path to success," he added.
