Sample Undergraduate Business Paper

Written Assignment 2: Verizon Reaches Deal with 36,000 Striking Workers

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Written Assignment 2: Verizon Reaches Deal with 36,000 Striking Workers

The main article for this discussion is “Verizon Reaches Deal with 36,000 striking Workers.” In this article, the author identifies the main factors that led to the strike and how the deal was reached. One of the key parties who greatly facilitated in the negotiation was the U.S labor secretary Thomas Perez. He states that the agreement between the employees of Verizon and employers was reached successfully.

The nature of this collective bargaining is composite. In composite collective bargaining, the employees and employers have to reach to an agreement in which the causes of the strike or labor restlessness are totally resolved (Morris, 2018). In this bargaining process, the employees of Verizon were seeking for fairness in terms of employment. Instead of following the right procedure of firing or retrenching employees, the employer resolved to use unconstitutional means. This meant that some employees were fired without being compensated or even warned against any malpractice in their performance. In addition, recruitment and training processes in this organization have not been well undertaken and this was one of the factors that led to the strike. The collective bargaining involved the employers and union representatives of the employees who negotiated the deal on the behalf of employees. It took several weeks before the issue was resolved. Verizon is a very large organization that provides employment to thousands of the US citizens. However, continued mistreatment of the employees and failure to honor labor laws by the management is what led to the strike.

One of the main causes of this strike was unfair work contract. Employees expressed a lot of dissatisfaction with the company due to the fact that many of them were fired unfairly. The main causes of organizational strikes are work insecurity and poor pay (Morris, 2018). In relation to unfair firing of employees, they also expressed their dissatisfaction with increased amount of work but with low pay. Prior to the strike, employees had tried to seek a meeting with their employers through their leaders of union but this could not work. Another main concern was that the employees claimed that the pay that they received from the company did not match with the efforts. Some employees explained that despite having worked with the Verizon for many years, they were still struggling to succeed in life. Another cause of the strike was that well-educated employees were not effectively rewarded with promotions in the company but instead they were being fired. In addition, the amount of work was more compared to the salaries that the employees received and there was no replacement done on those employees who were fired or who left work at will.

On their side, the employers applied lockouts and permanent replacements to offset the balance of power in the organization. This form of economic power ensured that employees worked with the fear of being replaced since there was no permanent contract to ensure that their employment was secure. In addition, workers’ unions in Verizon were not considered powerful enough to confront the employer in honoring employment contract. On their side, the employees used boycotts and strikes as their form of economic pressure to force the employer to listen to their demands. The strike by Verizon workers happened countrywide and it involved over 40,000 workers which made it impossible for the company to continue with its operations. This strike mostly involved technicians and customer representatives and they were represented by CWA and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The decision to hold the strike was reached upon having unsuccessful attempts to hold talks with the employer.

The main ethical failure was on the side of the employer. Verizon failed to be open to its employees in terms of work replacements and terms of contract. As part of collective bargaining, the employer should be clear in communicating all processes and changes in the organization (Lecher, Platzer, & Weiner, 2018).  Employees complained that they were being fired or replaced without any official notice. This is what caused insecurity among the workers. In addition, the employer failed to hold meetings with the workers unions to have a permanent solution to the problems. It was unethical conduct by the employer to ignore the plea by the employees in terms of reviewing the contract of employment. When employees are insecure about their jobs, it becomes difficult to predict their future in such organization (Lecher, Platzer, & Weiner, 2018). There is evidence that Verizon fired many employees without formal warning and many others were not promoted despite working for the company for many years. Thus, what the employees wanted was a formal contract that would protect their employment against immature terminations. There is no evidence on the side of employees that they violated any employment laws by going on strike since it was the only solution to have their grievances aired.

The dispute was resolved by having the company sign a contract with the employees regarding the security of their employment. One of the key aspects of the solution that was reached upon by both parties was to add “good union jobs” as part of the new deal signed. The solution to the problems of the worker was reached after 13-day talks. As part of the deal, the company was compelled to sign up for more workers in many of its outlets. In addition, the security on employment contract was guaranteed. As a result of this agreement, Verizon’s stock increased by 1% in the following week which indicated that the employees were highly motivated to go back to work due to successful talks (Egan, 2016). 

The third party involved in this collective bargaining was CWA Union, IBEW and the ministry of labor. These parties ensured that a permanent solution was attained between Verizon and its striking workers. The Ministry of Labor through the intervention of the U.S Labor Secretary put more pressure on Verizon to steer up the talks with its employees. The efforts by these parties were necessary in showing Verizon’s management the right thing to do in resolving its employee’s grievances.

The best way through which this dispute could have been solved was by having a mutual understanding between the management of Verizon and its employees. However, this needed to involve union leaders to sign and seal the deal. However, this could not happen since the organization did not seem to value the interests of its employees. Besides, clear communication on why the organization was undertaking some measures could have saved time and even unnecessary strikes. The fact that it took 13 days to agree on the issue was costly in many ways. One reason why Verizon chose not to listen to the workers grievances at first was that there were previous threats by workers going on strike but such threats never amounted to anything. This seemed to be another case of such threats and the company assumed that it was going to end normally. However, ignoring the workers led to work stoppage to the extent of having the network being shut down in some regions.

References

Egan, M., (May 27, 2016). Verizon reaches deal with 36,000 striking workers. CNN.

Lecher, W., Platzer, H. W., & Weiner, K. P. (2018). European Works Councils: development, types and networking. London: Routledge.

Morris, C. J. (2018). Returning Members-Only Collective Bargaining to the American Workplace. Members-only Library.