States See More Verizon Complaints During Strike
Three state regulators reported an uptick in Verizon customer complaints as the union strike entered its fourth week. Police arrested 15 union strikers outside Verizon’s annual shareholder meeting Thursday in Albuquerque, while inside shareholders voted no on three union-endorsed proposals. The Albuquerque protest was one of more than 400 across the U.S. Thursday, with some happening in Verizon Wireless markets outside of Fios territory, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) said.
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New Jersey received 75 customer complaints about Verizon, with 47 about service, in the period from April 13 when the strike began to Thursday, a New Jersey Board of Public Utilities spokesman said. That’s a 79 percent increase in total complaints from the same period last year, when it received 42, with 24 about service, he said. Massachusetts received 22 complaints from Verizon customers from April 13 to May 4 this year, said a spokesman for the state’s Department of Telecommunications and Cable. “At issue is mainly delays in line repairs, customer service and installation of service,” he said. The number of complaints in Massachusetts isn’t “unexpected or unusual” for a three-week-old strike, he said. Virginia received 80 Verizon customer complaints from April 13 to May 5, but they're not necessarily all related to the strike, a Virginia State Corporation Commission spokeswoman said. During the same period in 2015, the commission received 57 complaints, she said.
Telecom regulators in Maryland and the District of Columbia said they’ve seen no major increase in complaints since the strike began. "We're still keeping an eye on the situation," a Maryland Public Service Commission spokeswoman said. States didn't report problems during the first few days of the strike (see 1604150069).
Customer service problems caused by the strike could hurt Verizon’s brand reputation more than the picket lines themselves, marketing experts said this week (see 1605030050). Verizon, which has gathered thousands of nonunion workers to fill in during the strike, said its replacement workers are keeping service levels high. But union workers claimed safety violations by their replacements (see 1604270059).
Strikers live-streamed their protest outside the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town, where the Verizon shareholder meeting was held Thursday. As the meeting got underway at 8:30 a.m. MDT, strikers sat in line across Rio Grande Boulevard with a 70-foot banner. Two of the strikers announced through a megaphone they were willing to go to jail. Police approached at about 8:54 a.m. and led all 15 strikers away with hands behind their backs. The arrests appeared to go smoothly, with protesters putting up no resistance. They were cited for obstructing traffic.
Inside the meeting, union workers who hold about $1.3 billion of company stock voted for a series of shareholder proposals on corporate governance. CWA said the union shareholders planned to vote in favor of three proposals: (1) require that the board chair be an independent director, (2) require shareholder approval of “golden parachutes” for executives, and (3) require executives to retain 75 percent of shares they receive as part of their compensation packages. But these and three other shareholder proposals didn’t win approval, Verizon said in a news release Thursday. The first proposal requiring an independent board chair was defeated with 23.5 percent for and 76.5 percent against, according to preliminary vote tallies reported by Verizon. The second on "golden parachutes" was voted down with 31.3 percent for and 68.7 percent against, Verizon said. And the third on share retention was defeated with only 7.4 percent in favor, the telco said.
Protesters continued to condemn Verizon policies. “I’m going to Albuquerque to look [CEO] Lowell McAdams in the eye and tell him how his choice to put short-term profits and executive payouts over the good of the company and its workforce is endangering my family and the families of my co-workers,” said Don Dunn, a 21-year Verizon field technician who has 5,000 units of Verizon stock, in a statement before the meeting. “Until Verizon changes course and starts investing in workers who can provide quality service our customers deserve, support for our strike will only continue to grow.” Richard Hesterhagen, another shareholder who's striking in Staten Island, New York, said, “Verizon’s CEO makes 243 times more than the average worker, while customers in towns up and down the east-coast can’t get the quality service the company promised them. Striking workers aren’t just fighting to protect good middle-class jobs, we’re fighting for a better Verizon that invests in communities, increases access to broadband and closes the digital divide. That’s the vision this company needs, not the short-term payouts for executives that the current leadership is promoting.”