Sen. Schumer Urges Verizon to Re-Hire Unjustly Fired Verizon Wireless Worker

.@SenSchumer pledges support to Verizon & Verizon wireless workers fighting for fair contracts #standup2vzpic.twitter.com/YLpDAyKsxo

— CWA District 1 (@CWADistrict1) January 22, 2016

At a rally on Friday U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) joined CWA members in Brooklyn, NY to demand Verizon Wireless re-hire illegally fired Verizon Wireless worker and CWA Local 1109 member Bianca Cunningham and settle fair contracts at Verizon and Verizon Wireless. 39,000 landline workers are still working without a contract at Verizon.

"I will be with you through thick and thin because of what you've done for my family, because you've always been in my corner, but most of all because I care about average families." said Senator Schumer outside Bianca's Verizon Wireless storie in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

"We need a fair contract for all the 39,000 workers here at Verizon," Schumer continued. "You know, ladies and gentlemen, in the old days, we wanted corporate America to make profits. You know why? In the '50s, '60s and '70s they knew that when they made profit, it was because of their workers. And they shared those profits with their workers. This day we're in a new era. It all goes to salaries to the people at the highest end."

Schumer's mother-in-law was a longtime CWA member. That good, union job allowed the family to build a better life and send his wife to college. That's why today Schumer is fighting for strong "card check" and a National Labor Relations Board with real teeth.

The company had attempted to silence and terrify Brooklyn Verizon Wireless workers when they fired Bianca from her job at the Retail Store in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn earlier this year. In November, The Federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) slapped Verizon Wireless with a labor complaint for firing Bianca. The NLRB trial over the illegal termination is happening right now.

“Verizon just announced $5.5 billion in profits in the fourth quarter of 2015,” said Dennis Trainor, Vice President of CWA District One.  “But management would rather intimidate its workers by firing their leader for standing up for her rights than settle a fair contract.  It shouldn’t take Federal charges for Verizon to bring Bianca back and settle fair and just contracts.”

The 65 newly-unionized Brooklyn workers are the first retail workers in all of Verizon Wireless to form a union. Verizon Wireless workers are fighting for raises, better benefits and a voice on the job to improve working conditions and protect themselves against unfair metrics that drive commissions and management favoritism.

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