Over 20 percent of Verizon's workforce is on strike, thanks to the company's efforts to make up for reduced wireline revenues by reducing the value of wireline union jobs. Given Verizon's current profitability, it's time for management to find a better solution.
I agree, Mary. Actually technology just follows the work systems of management and amplifies the affect on people.
I do believe that Verizon has lost sight of the human value and believe that their drive for results solely through technololgy is coming back to bite them.
You are absolutely right, unions aren't good or bad in and of themselves, but when management fails to manage effectively the unions are a good alternative.
Dunno about where unions recruit negotiators, but the negotiators I know in smaller unions (provinical teachers union, for instance) come from the ranks.
Verizon certainly can decide not to renew contracts with the two unions it's supposed to be bargaining with. The deal is that the workers are part of a union or unions contracted by the employer.
Thanks for answering, Mary. I realize that it was kind of a obvious/borderline annoying question. :)
I was thinking of how fast groups of people can organize with the use of our current technology vs. how difficult it must have been in the past when unions were first formed. And then trying to compare the speed at which say, workers of a company can organize vs. an established and pre-formed union when there is an issue and the amount of fees union workers must pay union officials to speak on their behalf. I suppose it is just easier to pay someone else to negotiate. Perhaps, I'm just to much of a do it yourselfer...
Is it legal for Verizon to put up its midde finger and hire new workers?
Obviously, I am an expert :) when it comes to union laws and affairs.
The value of unions has been proven, but like everything else, they can be corrupted and their hand overplayed.
I can't see the link between technology and unions. Will technology stop a company from demanding that hands-on tradespeople work 12 hour days, 6 days a week?
I'm afraid it won't.
The question of whether unions are good or bad is like asking, Why can't every divorcing couple come to their own fair and equitable agreement without a lawyer? Sure, it would be nice, but heck, it's not going to happen. As long as businesses are under the mandate to produce as much as possible as cheaply as possible, workers will need some level of protection from excessive and unfair demands.
Do we really need unions with the technology we have today? There are many good and bad things about unions and they were developed for a good reason back in the day. But, with the level of communication and technology that we have today are unions necessary? Any thoughts?
Argh. It makes their entire point moot, doesn't it? Kind of reminds me of the citizen backlash against the "protests" of hacker group Anonymous -- hurting Peter in Paul's name, to mangle the old adage.
What's interesting about that is... if I recall correctly, Verizon employees get free service as part of their compensation package. So if they go around cutting major service lines, won't they effectively be killing their own service??? (Unless of course they do it in non-impact areas for themselves).
There is no excuse for sabotage! That said, people are very angry about Verizon's heavy-handed treatment of its union workers. Sadly, those who perpetrate these outages are only hurting themselves and their cause.
There's a trend underway to make employee performance reviews everyone's business – letting peers, customers, and direct reports in on rating people's daily doings. Mary gives this a thumbs down.
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Carol Bartz was the CEO of an international public company. But that didn't stop her from cursing a blue streak when she was fired last week. Here's why she should have kept her mouth shut.
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Watching TV is not healthy for you, according to conventional wisdom. Well, that may soon change. Comcast and United Healthcare are now delivering diabetes prevention videos on-demand to high-risk patients. The partnership illustrates how healthcare may be delivered in the future.
Maybe Google+ will be competitive and maybe it won't, but it's likely to introduce video calling and OTT communications as a replacement for standard telephony. There will be major consequences to this, and we don't have an FCC or political framework capable of coping.
AT&T is buying spectrum from Qualcomm, and the fact that it's happening only now suggests that mobile services and profit models aren't as easy to predict as we thought.
Customer interest in mobile video transmissions is growing. However, there is not enough bandwidth now to support rich exchanges – a shortcoming that could stymie movement to applications like mobile videoconferencing.
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