99% Spring Disrupts Verizon Shareholder Meeting Six Times

You'd be hard-pressed to find a better example of corporate greed than Verizon, a company making billions and tripling its CEO's pay while demanding givebacks from its workers. Today the 99% Spring movement let Verizon know that 99% of us are trying to bring big corporations back under democracy's control. Today's Verizon shareholder meeting in Huntsville, Alabama was disrupted six separate times by members of the 99% Power coalition, part of the99% Spring movement.

The Verizon shareholder meeting comes as the company is in negotiations with the Communication Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). The highly-profitable company -- the 16th largest corporation in America -- is asking its workers for givebacks amounting to as much as $20,000 each, while tripling the compensation of CEO Lowell McAdam from $7.2 million to $23.1 million. The company made $22.5 billion in profits over the past four years while paying its top five executives $283 million over that period. Because of this the company has earned the nickname "Verigreedy."

After today's meeting was opened by McAdam, and as he was introducing Verizon's Board of Directors, a group of people stood up with one shouting "Mic Check" three times. Then the leader continued, with the rest of the group repeating, "Verizon wants to ... slash worker benefits ... 20,000 dollars ... per worker... per year!... We say... SHAME on you!... Meanwhile... Verizon CEO... Lowell McAdam... got a... 220 percent raise... up to 23 million dollars... Shame Shame Shame on you..." The last line was repeated as the group was led out of the meeting by security, with many in the audience applauding them. There were no arrests.

After several minutes another group disrupted the meeting, and was led out by security as many in attendance applauded and chanted with them. Then the same sequence again, and again, for a total of 6 times.

The Rally

At a rain-soaked rally before the shareholder meeting Al Henley, President of the Alabama AFL-CIO demanded that Verizon be a better corporate citizen. "Verizon is on the run from their own workers, and thought that by taking the meeting to Alabama, a "right-to-work" state, but they misjudged our sense of solidarity here in the South."

Here are some photos from the rally:

Also at the rally, Ron Collins, CWA Chief of Staff, said, "Enough of the attacks on idle-class jobs while paying executives obscene salaraies and dodging taxes."

Scott Douglas, Executive Director of the Greater Birmingham Ministries, said, "We may be down South, but we are not offshore. Today we say with new meaning the Alabama state motto, we dare defend our rights... Now more than ever, it is important for people of conscience to join together to recognize our common struggle against injustice and to fight back united."

Sarita Gupta of Jobs with Justice said, "Verizon's CEO makes $23 million per year. That's over 600 times more than an average frontline worker makes. This is fundamentally an issue of fairness."

Patrick Welsh, a Verizon retiree, talked about the promises made that if you work hard, follow the rules and pay your taxes then you'll have a good retirement, and Verizon has broken that promise.

Also speaking were Jasmine Salas of the Student Labor Action Project and Jennifer Travis, a worker fired by Verizon.

People arrived at the rally in 12 buses and several vans from Florida, New Orleans, Mississippi, Birmingham, Knoxville, Atlanta, Nashville, Columbia, Chattanooga, and other cities throughout the region. They represented several groups, including CWA, Jobs with Justice, Occupy Huntsville, Occupy Birmingham and the Student Labor Action Project. Students from Orlando and Tallahassee took a 14 hour bus trip and slept in the local Plumbers Union hall.

There were also rallies supporting Verizon workers in 15 cities including Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Boston, Portland, Miami and Orlando.

Donation In Lieu Of Taxes?

In a PR move before the meeting Verizon yesterday donated $100K to the Alabama Governor's office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and the United Way of Alabama, for disaster relief to help recovery from tornados that occurred just over a year ago. (This brings their total disaster-assistance giving to $400K). Gov. Robert Bentley said these funds are important because"government dollars aren't available." The Governor could have added, "Because Verizon doesn't pay taxes."

Signs, Moving Billboard, Totally Unrelated Cow

Burma Shave-style signs with poems, all ending with, "Verizon is Verigreedy" appeared around town overnight on roadsides and elsewhere, placed by "a team of elves." Large signs condemning Verizon's greed were placed in strategic locations around the meeting site. Also, a large moving billboard vehicle, reading, "Verizon Is Verigreedy" was circling the location of the shareholder meeting.

In other, unrelated news, a cow got loose in the middle of the night, keeping police occupied, which had nothing to do with the rest of this. Meanwhile, Huntsville's fried catfish and hush puppies are worth the trip, even though you can't really tell the air from the rain because of the humidity, and it's only the beginning of May.

Pushback

Verizon is outsourcing U.S. jobs, cutting worker pensions and gutting them for new hires, charging current and retired employees thousands of dollars more for health benefits, and cutting disability coverage. This is how the middle class in the U.S. is being hollowed out. Pushback began last year with Occupy, and has now been expanded by the 99% Spring movement. People are finally fighting back.

This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.

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Comments

[bvar]

10:50 AM on 05/04/2012

I am a Verizon spokesperson and among the 150 who attended our annual meeting. While I respect the views of individuals present, I'd like to raise a different perspective. First, there's the urban myth that Verizon doesn't pay taxes. Untrue. Our 10K -- independently audited, filed with the SEC, and attested to by management under personal legal liability -- reports nearly $4 billion in total tax payments in 2011. The profit numbers reported in this blog are also inaccurately magnified by 3Xs. Our 10K reports Verizon net income of $7.65 billion over the past four years. The suggestion that Verizon has no standing to hold a meeting in Huntsville is also inaccurate. Verizon Wireless has regional headquarters, including a call center employing more than 1,000, in Huntsville. In addition, our CEO does not receive the amount cited in annual compensation. His target compensation is 90% at-risk, as detailed in our proxy – and, at the annual meeting, 87% of shareholders voted to endorse and approve Verizon’s executive compensation. Meanwhile, negotiations continue with unions representing 45,000 workers in the Northeast in Verizon’s traditional landline telephone business. Verizon is negotiating for meaningful change in the cost structure of a business undergoing a radical shift in customer demand – in part by proposing that workers whose income puts them in the top 25% of U.S. households pay a modest monthly contribution to healthcare premiums. The “giveback” numbers are erroneous. Verizon’s goal is to make sure these great jobs, with great benefits, are sustainable.

[Smitty Black]

08:24 AM on 05/10/2012

Is it also possible that the shift in the wireline bussiness is being helped along by your company not fixing customer problems through out its network. Rural customers in NJ are seeing calls being handled with a response time of 7+ days as well as inner city customers who can not get simple network issues repaired. On top of the network repair issues , your company has failed here in NJ to meet its broadband coverage agreement with the state. There are videos on youtube showing the aftermath of a verizon manager throwing out lots of expensive working fios equipment and there are people still waiting for FTTP to come into their neigborhood. Ceo McAdams idea to make everything wireless is a pipe dream I know no home owner who wants a device the size of a garbage can that pumps out ADSL speeds attached to their home. To continue the talk of cost structure, what about the money wasted on empty buildings and redundant managment. Surely verizon knows about lean sigma 6 principles.

[bvar]

01:59 PM on 05/10/2012

Thanks for your comment. I did some research on this… Across NJ, the best indicator of network reliability, the Customer Trouble Report Rate, has ranged between 1.4 and 1.7 per 100 access lines, well below the regulators’ mandated 2.3. When problems were brought to our attention in some rural areas of the state, we addressed them with new cabling and equipment in the field – and this further reduced trouble reports. Regarding broadband, the agreement referenced is called Opportunity New Jersey, and it’s about 20 years old now. Verizon has delivered on what was envisioned 20 years ago – and then some, investing more than $13 billion in our NJ landline network since the plan was approved. A 2011 study on the NJ communications market stated that NJ (my home state!) leads the nation in overall high-speed broadband penetration, confirming a 2010 study by the International Information and Technology Innovation Foundation that ranked NJ first in the nation in Broadband Telecommunications, crediting Verizon. We have deployed broadband to more than 99% of the census blocks in New Jersey (and, yes, that is not 100%) under the methodology used by the federal government to produce the national broadband map.

[John Paul Thornton]

08:20 AM on 05/04/2012

i was at this event. it was awesome to see so many people come out in the rain in contempt of the type of corporate malfeasance undertaken by Verizon and its CEO. I submit that NO man is worth over $20 million a year, especially one who would approve the things that are going on at Verizon right now.

Verizon, you will never get my business.

[coveark]

06:33 PM on 05/03/2012

They are getting my boot as soon as my contracts end............

[eric14]

06:19 PM on 05/03/2012

La lotta continua!