Verizon Workers Rally At Station Square, March To Downtown
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Striking Verizon workers gathered for a rally in front of Sen. Pat Toomey's office in Station Square and then marched to company's headquarters downtown.
Verizon and the Communication Workers of America are dug in. The strikers say it's a battle over greed.
"Our CEO makes $55,000 a day and they want every one of these people plus more to take a $20,000 a year pay cut," Jennifer Gromek, a striking worker, said.
The company says it's a battle over changing technologies.
"Our landline business is continuing to shrink," Lee Gierczynski, a Verizon spokesman, said. "We're serving less than half the number of landlines that we served 10 years ago."
The rally comes as both the CWA and Verizon are running ad campaigns in this increasingly bitter strike.
A Verizon radio commercial claims the strikers are earning on average $85,000 a year. The strikers laugh at the number and even the company is backing off the figure.
"If you look at a labor dispute like this, they're always going to be claims that are going back and forth between the parties.
While a PR war continues in the street and on the airwaves, little progress is reported at the bargaining table.
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