To the editor:

We at Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are on strike against Verizon. Not for big raises. We are fighting to keep OUR jobs and jobs for the NEXT generation.

You see, Verizon is a mega-corporation that made $5.5 billion net in the fourth quarter of 2015 and $1.8 billion net in each of the first three months of 2016, a company that pays the top four executives over $40 million a year and the CEO over $18 million alone, a company that is wanting to cut, outsource and offshore our jobs. In 2000, there were 85,000 unionized Verizon workers on strike. Now there are 39,000. Do the math. This is a company that is not hurting in any way, shape or form. The landline side is 29 percent of their income.

We are the network that connects the cell towers and many other cellphone companies’ towers also! Verizon refuses to build FIOS inclusively. In America, our broadband speeds rank 19th in the world. We (CWA and IEBW) are not only fighting for our jobs, but we want to build a better internet, phone and cable TV product for all of us.

Verizon has and wants to continue to put us on the road. Many of us have spent six or more months a year in New York City building FIOS, away from our families and homes three weeks at a time. This is not for storm damage, like the ice storm of ’98. Now they want us to relocate for two months at a time without seeing our families. Much of this work is without overtime.

Verizon wants to gut our job security and offshore every job it can! They want to outsource our jobs to contractors that have no connection or pride for our hometowns.

Yes, we make good money. I agree. Yes, we have good benefits. They were all fought for! The company did not give them freely. We at CWA and IBEW were there in the ’98 ice storm and every storm before and after. We are there in the middle of the night in all weather, helping our brothers at the power company. We climb poles. We set poles in 13,000 volts. We work jobs that destroy our backs, shoulders and knees. Seldom does one retire from this work without being half-crippled in one way or another. It is not a job for everyone or the weak at heart.

This is my third strike. While on strike, we go without pay, and after 15 days, we lose our health insurance. We can’t collect unemployment for seven weeks. Some members in the past have lost homes, and marriages are put to the test also. My children have done without when our union has had to call a strike. We are not only striking for our jobs, but for what is left of the middle class!

Thank you for this format to speak.

John Briaddy

Chief union steward

Verizon lineman

Saranac Lake