May, 05 2016, 10:30am EDT
On the Day of Verizon's Annual Shareholder Meeting, Verizon Strikers & Supporters to Hold Nationwide Protests as Shareholder Unrest Grows
Today, Thursday, May 5, on the same day as Verizon's annual shareholder meeting, striking workers, including many who own shares in the company, and their supporters will hold over 400 protests around the nation. At the same time, dozens of Verizon workers will converge outside the shareholder meeting in Albuquerque, where worker-shareholders will fight for proposals to improve Verizon's corporate governance and end the company's short-sighted decision-making.
NEW YORK
Today, Thursday, May 5, on the same day as Verizon's annual shareholder meeting, striking workers, including many who own shares in the company, and their supporters will hold over 400 protests around the nation. At the same time, dozens of Verizon workers will converge outside the shareholder meeting in Albuquerque, where worker-shareholders will fight for proposals to improve Verizon's corporate governance and end the company's short-sighted decision-making. The wave of protests comes as workers enter their fourth week on strike because of the company's insistence on offshoring and outsourcing jobs, and as Verizon faces mounting criticism of its problematic decision-making that shortchanges workers and communities.
"I'm going to Albuquerque to look 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 Verizon field technician for 21 years, a shareholder with over 5000 units of Verizon stock, and President of Local 1108. "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."
In Albuquerque, striking workers, other CWA members, and community and labor supporters will protest outside the shareholder meeting at the Oldtown Hotel. Verizon workers will carry banners calling for a fair contract are planning to deliver petitions to Lowell McAdam from 350,000 customers who have grown increasingly frustrated with the company.
Today, Verizon workers with an estimated $1.3 billion in company stock holdings will vote in favor of shareholder proposals to improve corporate governance and accountability. CWA and IBEW members recently shared their recommendations on shareholder proposals with Verizon shareholders across the country who together own more than 60 percent of Verizon's total shares. Proposals, which have been endorsed by large investors like CalPERS and CalSTRS, include requiring that the Board Chair be an independent director and that future severance agreements be subject to shareholder approval.
"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," said Richard Hesterhagen, a striking Verizon worker in Staten Island, New York, and a shareholder in the company. "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."
For the first time, protests and demonstrations are expanding to Verizon wireless stores outside the strike region. More than 400 protests are planned in dozens of cities, including Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Atlanta, Kansas City, Wichita, Oklahoma City, Austin, Dallas, Indianapolis, Nashville, Knoxville, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sacramento. In New York City, an expected 2,000 workers, supporters and elected leaders will march to a Verizon Wireless store on Wall Street and call for a fair contract.
"Verizon strikers are fighting for the future of every American striving to make a decent living. That's why people are mobilizing at hundreds of protests across the country," said Sarita Gupta, Executive Director of Jobs With Justice, which is helping to coordinate many of the protests. "If companies like Verizon keep funneling all of their profits into executive payouts while sending good jobs offshore, it will become harder for the rest of us to earn a fair return on our work."
The growing calls for change of course at Verizon come as public opinion of the company has declined to a three-year low, according to a recent survey from YouGov. Top economists and financial analysts have been raising concerns about the company's short-sighted business decisions and the long-term impact of the strike. Several investment firms have recently lowered their Verizon ratings, including Jeffries, Scotiabank, Sanford Bernstein and Zacks.
Guide to Shareholder Proposals:
Verizon workers are concerned with current executive decision-making, including the impact of the strike forced by management, regulatory investigations into Verizon's infrastructure, broken promises to expand FiOS to communities and excessive executive compensation.
Verizon workers, with an estimated $1.3 billion in stock holdings, will vote in favor of a series of shareholder resolutions at the company's annual general meeting, including:
- Proposal #7, Kenneth Steiner requests to amend company's governing documents to require that the Board Chair be an independent director. Supporters include: CalPERS and CalSTRS
- Proposal #8, the Association of BellTell Retirees seeks shareholder approval of future severance agreements (also known as golden parachutes) that grant executives benefits exceeding 2.99 times their base salary plus bonus. If he was terminated in 2015, CEO Lowell McAdam would have received $40.2 million under the current policy. Supporters include: Institutional Shareholder Services, CalPERS and CalSTRS
- Proposal #9, the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers Pension Benefit Fund requests that the Human Resources Committee require executives to retain 75% of the shares they receive has part of their compensation packages. Supporters include: CalPERS
Communication Workers of America (CWA) is America's largest communications & media union. CWA members work in telecommunications and information technology, the airline industry, news media, broadcast and cable television, education, health care, public service and education, law enforcement, manufacturing and other fields.
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"USC cannot hide its cowardly decision behind a disingenuous concern for 'security."
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Several groups had called for Tabassum's removal as valedictorian entirely because they argued the link that she shared, a slideshow titled "Free Palestine," was antisemitic.
"Trojans for Israel strongly supports the right to free expression—including informed criticism of the Israeli government. However, rhetoric that denies the right of the Jewish people to self-determination or calls for the destruction of the only Jewish state in the world must be denounced as antisemitic bigotry," a campus group wrote in a social media post calling on USC to choose a new valedictorian.
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"The intensity of feelings, fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, has grown to include many voices outside of USC and has escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement," Guzman said in the university announcement. "We cannot ignore the fact that similar risks have led to harassment and even violence at other campuses."
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"After careful consideration, we have decided that our student valedictorian will not deliver a speech at commencement," Guzman said. "While this is disappointing, tradition must give way to safety."
The provost maintained that this was not a free speech issue.
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However, in her statement, Tabassum said that she attended a meeting with the provost and the associate senior vice president of safety and risk on Sunday, during which they told her that campus security would be able to protect her from any threats while speaking, but that taking appropriate measures would result in a commencement ceremony that was not what the university wants to "'present as an image.'"
"Because I am not aware of any specific threats against me or the university, because my request for the details underlying the university's threat assessment has been denied, and because I am not being provided any increased safety to be able to speak at commencement, there remain serious doubts about whether USC's decision to revoke my invitation to speak is made solely on the basis of safety," Tabassum said.
Council on American-Islamic Relations-Los Angeles (CAIR-LA) executive director Hussam Ayloush also cast doubt on the university's motives in a statement.
"USC cannot hide its cowardly decision behind a disingenuous concern for 'security,'" Ayloush said. "Asna is an incredibly accomplished student whose academic and extracurricular accomplishments made her the ideal and historic recipient of this year's valedictorian's honor. The university can, should, and must ensure a safe environment for graduation rather than taking the unprecedented step of cancelling a valedictorian's speech."
"The dishonest and defamatory attacks on Asna are nothing more than thinly-veiled manifestations of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, which have been weaponized against college students across the country who speak up for human rights—and for Palestinian humanity," Ayloush continued.
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Ayloush argued that USC's decision to cancel Tabassum's speech "empowers voices of hate and censorship, violates USC's obligation to protect its students, and sends a terrible signal to both Muslim students at USC and all students who dare to express support for Palestinian humanity."
Washington Post columnist and Columbia adjunct Karen Attiah also saw the university's decision as a setback for academic freedom.
"What is happening at USC shows that the credibility/legitimacy of many liberal institutions died in Gaza," Attiah wrote on social media. "Western journalistic objectivity died in Gaza. True academic freedom died in Gaza. Do we see how much violence it takes to uphold an imperial status quo?"
Writer and editor Tom Gara called out the university for the discrepancy between its actions and its course offerings.
"Incredible story. USC offers a minor in 'resistance to genocide,' this girl minored in it, was named valedictorian, and then they cancelled her speech because she might talk about genocide," Gara said on social media.
CAIR-LA is calling on USC to reverse its decision and circulating a petition in support of this demand.
Tabassum, meanwhile, addressed her fellow students.
"As your class valedictorian, I implore my USC classmates to think outside the box—to work toward a world where cries for equality and human dignity are not manipulated to be expressions of hatred," she said. "I challenge us to respond to ideological discomfort with dialogue and learning, not bigotry and censorship. And I urge us to see past our deepest fears and recognize the need to support justice for all people, including the Palestinian people."
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