Verizon won't say how many Iowans helping out with strike

Some Verizon employees in Iowa may have received temporary assignments to help out during the strike of the company's East Coast land line workers, although not many.

A Verizon spokesman didn't dismiss the notion in response to an inquiry from The Gazette on Thursday, August 11.

"We do have some management employees from outside our wireline locations in the East helping out, but there's really no way for me to know how many, if any, are from Iowa," Verizon spokesman Peter Thonis said in an emailed response.

Thonis wrote that the "vast majority of Verizon employees in Iowa work in the wireless side of the business, and they are not involved."

It is not uncommon for unionized companies to bring in salaried employees from areas not affected by a strike to perform work ordinarily done by bargaining unit employees who are walking picket lines. In extreme cases, the workers face name-calling and other forms of hostility for crossing union picket lines.

Crossing picket lines may not even be necessary in today's workplace, however, because the Internet allows so many tasks to be performed from remote locations.

Communications Workers of America Local 7101 in Eastern Iowa does not represent Verizon workers, according to local President Scott Rentschler. He said he'd heard second-hand that some Iowa Verizon employees are working long extra hours because of the Verizon strike.

Thonis did not respond to an inquiry about how many salaried employees from other areas Verizon is using during the strike.

About 45,000 workers in Verizon's land line operations went on strike in northeast and mid-Atlantic states over the weekend after Verizon attempted to extract contract concessions such as requiring union workers to contribute to health plan premiums, halting pension accruals this year, and tying future pay increases to job performance.

Verizon faces pressures to readjust costs in the land line operations as more Americans "cut the cord" and rely exclusively on wireless technology for their communication.

Verizon took over former MCI operations in Cedar Rapids after acquiring the telecom giant out of bankruptcy. It closed a call center that employed about 200 in 2006, but has preserved jobs in several other departments.