Verizon Workers Hold Strike and Walk Out From Their Stations; Find Out Why

On Wednesday, almost 40, 000 workers of communications giant Verizon called a strike and walked off their station in one of the biggest union strike seen in the last 5 years. A labor impasse in 2011 also took the workers to the streets involving a much larger crowd of 45, 000 people.

Workers were called into collective action by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who represent Verizon workers in jobs such as frontline customer service, network technicians, and traditional wireline phone operations.

Walkout could hamper Verizon's Fios Internet, telephone and TV services and business in a number of states in the East Coast. The walkout, however, does not include wireless operation which is also the company's biggest source of revenue and profits.

Verizon stated that it had already prepared for such scenario as the company already trained non-union employees to prevent unwanted service disruption.

"There's no way that these 10,000 people ... can make up for 40,000 people who have decades of experience (in highly technical jobs)," CWA representative Bob Master remarked as quoted by Reuters.

What are Verizon workers complaining about?

In recent years, Verizon has been outsourcing 5, 000 jobs or even more to countries with lower labor cost primarily the Philippines, Mexico, and the Dominican Republican. With more low-paid non-union contractors entering the fray, the picketers fear being sidelined to unemployment.

"The main thing is that it's taking good-paying jobs and taking them away from the American public," said Ken Beckett, a technical telecommunications associate and a CWA member as reported by CNN Money.

Meanwhile, self-confessed socialist and Democratic presidential aspirant Bernie Sanders joined the striking works after the mass walkout.

"I know your families are going to pay a price," Sanders shouted as quoted by Associated Press. "On behalf of every worker in America who is facing the same kind of pressure, thank you for what you're doing. We're going to win this thing!"