A Verizon Worker Tells His CEO Why He’s Striking
In an open letter, a technician for the telecommunications giant told his CEO that he and his colleagues are not “tools” -- as one manager had hurtfully suggested -- but men and women with lives, needs and dignity.
Verizon workers on strike in Staten Island, N.Y., in April. (Thomas Altfather Good / CC BY-ND 2.0)
Verizon workers on strike in Staten Island, N.Y., in April. (Thomas Altfather Good / CC BY-ND 2.0)
“Treating us like tools isn’t good for Verizon’s bottom line,” Dan Hylton, a Verizon technician, wrote in an open letter to Lowell C. McAdam, the CEO of Verizon — which makes $1.5 billion in profits every month. Hylton is on strike because the company is increasingly sending technicians like him on last-minute assignments, sometimes hundreds of miles away from home. The assignments are a particularly stressful problem for Hylton because he is caring for a sick wife, who could die if he is not around to keep any eye on her condition.
“Last week, I took a drastic step,” Dan Hylton of Roanoke, Va. wrote in the letter, published at Medium. “Instead of going in to work at Verizon, I stood outside with a picket sign. I’m on strike because it’s time for you to listen to us.”
“I install and fix Internet, cable and phone service,” he continued. “I’m proud to say I’ve volunteered to serve wherever the need is greatest. I went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and Central Florida after bad storms there.”
“Yet on a work call the other day, one of the managers said technicians like me were ‘tools to accomplish a task.’ Maybe that manager chose those demeaning words poorly, but that comment stung with more truth than I can easily admit.”
“There is another way to be,” Hylton continued further down in the letter, “and that’s treating us like family.”
—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
Your support is crucial…With an uncertain future and a new administration casting doubt on press freedoms, the danger is clear: The truth is at risk.
Now is the time to give. Your tax-deductible support allows us to dig deeper, delivering fearless investigative reporting and analysis that exposes what’s really happening — without compromise.
Stand with our courageous journalists. Donate today to protect a free press, uphold democracy and unearth untold stories.
Film
A new documentary goes inside the dramatic origins of the Amazon Labor Union — just in time for holiday shopping decisions.
Labor
The tentative agreement with shipping giants reportedly includes a 62% wage boost over six years.
Editorial Cartoons
Media
Mainstream outlets like the New York Times have platformed anti-union talking points while covering the UAW strike.
Labor
"It is the leverage generated by your strike, in concert with the extraordinary support of our union siblings, that finally brought the companies back to the table to make a deal."
Editorial Cartoons
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.