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Informational Picket
Aug 19, 2011

Verizon workers perform weekly picket  

By Alison McCall/Daily News staff
Posted Jul 02, 2011 @ 12:01 AM

Verizon employees picketed yesterday morning near the headquarters off Trotter Drive to protest proposed contract changes.

Their contract ends Aug. 6, said union President Keith Herrick, who worries that employees will lose hard-fought provisions.

"They're coming after our benefits, our health care," Herrick said. "They want to take those plans we've created together and give us a new plan."

Yesterday was part of a weekly "informational picket" held by union employees across the area. Herrick said employees have been picketing every week since the beginning of June on either Thursday or Friday, and at headquarters in Framingham and Marlborough, too.

Some picket on their lunch break, while others, like the employees in Medway, do so around 7 or 8 in the morning, before their shifts start, for 15 or 20 minutes.

"We expected them to come after a few little things," said Herrick, saying he felt "shocked" when he heard the preliminary plans from Verizon for the new contract.

Verizon employees are looking at freezes on their wages, benefits, and pensions, Herrick said, and the company wants to send some jobs out of state - largely call center work. Employees may pay higher health care premiums, as well, and he worries about potential job loss.

"We gave up higher wages to keep our benefits," Herrick said. "We make decent wages and we know that. It's just keeping what we have intact."

Herrick said the purpose of the picketing is to tell the public of employees' position, and he hopes union members will not have to resort to strikes.

Phil Santoro, media relations manager for the Northeast Regional Bureau of Verizon, said the company has seen picketing like this before.

"This is what happens every three years. They generally do some informational picketing or mobilization. It's just par for the course, nothing unusual," he said.

He said the company is negotiating a three-year contract, but he didn't want to respond to union claims about it.

"It's way too early to start talking about it," he said. "Negotiation just started this week."


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