"Verizon workers can now be fired if they fix copper phone lines"

[TexasProgresive]

Verizon workers can now be fired if they fix copper phone lines
Verizon has told its field technicians in Pennsylvania that they can be fired if they try to fix broken copper phone lines. Instead, employees must try to replace copper lines with a device that connects to Verizon Wireless’s cell phone network.

This directive came in a memo from Verizon to workers on September 20. “Failure to follow this directive may result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal,” the memo said. It isn't clear whether this policy has been applied to Verizon workers outside of Pennsylvania.

The memo and other documents were made public by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union, which asked the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to put a stop to the forced copper-to-wireless conversions.
Further Reading
Verizon would end “century of regulation” by killing wireline phone, says NY AG

The wireless home phone service, VoiceLink, is not a proper replacement for copper phone lines because it doesn’t work with security alarms, fax machines, medical devices such as pacemakers that require telephone monitoring, and other services, the union said.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/10/verizon-workers-can-now-be-fired-if-they-fix-copper-phone-lines/

[Ohioblue22]

1. That clause is in every edict handed down from the company

[Mc Mike]

2. I've worked with a bunch of CWA members in Pittsburgh.

And backed them at some of their anti-Verizon events downtown.

The company just sent me a second notice about how I have to schedule my home's copper line retirement. I have only a home phone, no cell.

When I lose juice, I still have a corded phone that works because it operates off of the low voltage phone lines have. That proved useful to me when my power line went down, and I could still use the phone to call Duq Light.

[dembotoz]

3. union says it all....copper technology while old does things cell phones do not

may the assclowns who thought this up spend endless weekends stranded in dead elevators cause the police can not hear them now

[Nitram]

4. We keep a landline (with copper wire) for when the power goes out.

We don't get very good cell reception at home because we live in a rural area.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. What if they want internet access?

Wireless rates are pretty expensive. Verizon has pretty much given up on FIOS expansion.

[TexasProgresive]

6. The whole point of eliminating landline service is to move away from local and state regulations

They want unregulated and metered service. This has been the goal since long before the breakup of MABELL. They really don't care if rural people have internet service or not. So they have made no real effort to extend even ADSL service in rural areas much less FIOS. Urban areas do have the option of cable internet, but at least in Texas, cable companies don't generally serve outside the city limits.

[Mc Mike]

7. The Bell Tel bust up made a corporate entity hydra.

Last edited Fri Oct 7, 2016, 01:00 PM - Edit history (2)

The people up top of those different entities have been trying to stick it to both the unionized workers and the increasing number of non-union employees.

I got to see a real strong beef exposed, between Verizon (Bell Atlantic)'s landline Executive people and the top Verizon Wireless's management, on a job last year. I got to see Verizon tell CWAs "you have to move to another state", or stay here as a non-union tech for a different company.

Looking at rural connectivity is the key, here. Those rural red area dwelling citizens are going to be cut off, or their copper lines have to stay exactly how they are. Because the telecoms are never going to string fiber out to all those remote areas that are currently connected via copper. They're never going to set up and power wireless stations for those thousands of square mile sized regions with negligibly small populations of US citizens. So those people have to stay hooked up just as is, or will lose their service connections with the rest of the country. We paid for all the lines going out to those remote areas, all the way back to the dense webs of copper lines in all the high population blue areas. Copper connectivity is an American Infrastructure issue.

We taxpayers paid for everything, because it was a public utility. That's all that copper that's been strung up, everywhere. As the business becomes more profitable, it becomes less profitable for employees, and offers less services to the taxpayers that subsidized it. All that wireless data lands someplace where wires take it up, trunk line, exchange station, PBX, whatever. It can't stay up there forever. And we paid for all that infrastructure. Everything I did in wireless work, as an electrician, hooks into hard copper phone data transmission lines.

They're doing the exact same thing with the Post Office. The workers are taxpayers who paid for the facilities, now the repug big money people want to peel off and privatize the lucrative high population density areas, and leave the rural areas to fend for themselves. And they're doing the same thing to Public Transit in my area. It reduces traffic, reduces energy consumption and pollution, keeps the price of parking down, gives millions of employees a way to get to work, doing millions of jobs we all need done. It's publicly subsidized infrastructure.

In every case, the workers are taxpayers who paid for the infrastructure. We never asked that the government own and run the phones, post, and transit system. We use it, some of us work for it. Somehow, it's too much to ask that those jobs are stable and provide a decent living wage, though there are tons of profits to be had in those taxpayer created and supported infrastructural industries.

[TexasProgresive]

8. Everyone listen to McMike this is the scary truth.

[Mc Mike]

9. I never got to see the bid docs or contracts, for any of the wireless work my

NECA member employer had me performing. I did see the demarcation line between IBEW and CWA owned work, and we made all the chases the CWA people used to get back to that evil low voltage copper that Verizon frowns on, now.

Despite not having any paperwork to prove my statement, I'll bet any money that the wireless expansion is funded with taxpayer dollars, as infrastructure. Tax exemptions, tax credits, etc, are being used for it. Or they're straight up getting public funds from the gov for the expansion.

I didn't touch on the anti-oversight and anti-regulation angle you talked about, but the wireless business definitely isn't playing by the same rules that the old fashioned hard wire Verizon has to play by. That dividing line is letting the corporate entity, overall, get away from FCC and PUC oversight, as well as letting them practice union busting. It's obviously the FCC's and PUC's fault that this is occurring, even if it was sell out politicians who carved out the exemptions for wireless carriers like ATT Verizon Sprint Nextel T-Mobile etc.

The wireless services have copper wires from the different sector antennas to the r radio units, in the form of copper tip and ring coax cables. There are all copper hybrid cables (power and data) from the radios back to the equipment room or stand alone prefab equipment buildings. Once the copper hits all our equipment (inverters, fuses, breakers, rack mounted data equipment, free standing data cabinets), there may be some single or multi mode fiber wires, but there's always a tie in back to the existing underground or pole mounted low volt copper phone lines. All the alarms, for site power failure, back up generator failure, unauthorized entry, smoke detection, etc., go out over low volt phone lines. Those aren't going away, they're going to be maintained by someone for use by wireless.

They're making money hand over fist on data charges. When we needed to shut down the system, to not get our fillings cooked out by the active antennas, or not get nasty coax burns while swapping out equipment, they'd howl about how we were costing them so much money, because they couldn't charge any roving users in the area for use on their data plans. They'd pretend they were concerned about the customer, the customer is king, they didn't want the consumer to have negative feelings about their company's service, but customers actually just say "darn it, my phone dropped the call", and then redial. The company would howl about how they were losing money when the new sites weren't up as fast as they wanted, though they weren't losing a cent, they just weren't making even more money, like they wanted. One of my foremen used to say "What were those customers doing for phone service before we started building this site?", as a way to shut management up. Those companies are raking in zillions.

We subsidize their businesses through gov disbursed tax dollars, we get charged exhorbitently as ratepayers, they make zillions in profit with no oversight, then they tell the employees "you make too much money, we're poor, we're broke." Time for some layoffs and renegotiated contract give-backs. Their CEO and preferred stock holders rake in the profits.

They're exactly like the airline industry, they're using the airline industry's business model, not changing it in any way.