New York State Mayors Join CWA at Bargaining Table, Tell Verizon to Stop Stalling on FiOS

With days remaining before the contract between Verizon and its 39,000 unionized workers expires, Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner and Kingston Mayor Shayne Gallo joined us at a bargaining session with Verizon in Rye, New York.  At the same time, four other elected officials from across New York State wrote letters calling on Verizon to stop ignoring their communities’ need for high-speed internet and television service.

.@Syracuse1848 Major Stephanie Minor & Kingston Mayor @ShayneGallo @ barg tbl today 2 demand FiOS build! #StandUp2Vzpic.twitter.com/rCzlMnm7pP

— CWA District 1 (@CWADistrict1) July 30, 2015

The unprecedented visit and supportive letters from the Mayors of Albany, Utica and Rome and the Town Supervisor of Brookhaven demonstrate the common cause between the workers and customers around the state who are fed up with Verizon leaving them behind.  Verizon is refusing to build its state-of-the-art FiOS network in lower-income areas, leaving hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers at the mercy of their local cable monopoly, while at the same time letting its copper landline network deteriorate.

In New York City, a damning audit of Verizon’s FiOS rollout found that Verizon has failed to meet its promise to deliver high-speed fiber optic internet and television to everyone in the city who wanted it.  During its negotiations for a city franchise, Verizon promised that the entire city would be wired with fiber optic cables by June 2014 and that after that date, everyone who wanted FiOS would get it within six months to a year.  The audit found that despite claiming that it had wired the whole city by November 2014, Verizon systematically continues to refuse orders for service.  The audit also found that Verizon stonewalled the audit process. 

Today @Syracuse1848 Mayor M & Mayor @ShayneGallo came to barg table 2 demand FiOS build. @CWADistrict1@CWAUnionpic.twitter.com/i5ZRcFzPte

— cwabobmaster (@cwabobmaster) July 30, 2015