Verizon

Portland Drone Testing Facility Cancelled

November 11, 2020 Fight for the Future. Resist! Drones, Militarization, Portland, Verizon

Last week, the Port of Portland announced it would cancel a pending lease with Verizon for seven acres of riverfront property in one of Portland, Oregon’s most diverse neighborhoods. Verizon and their Portland-based subsidiary Skyward had sought to lease this area to test drones on Verizon’s 5G network along the Willamette river. “We appreciate the Port responding in support of community members and organizations who organized quickly to oppose this facility,” said Cassie Cohen (she/her), Executive Director of the Portland Harbor Community Coalition.

Fire Dept. Rejects Verizon’s “Customer Support Mistake” Excuse For Throttling

August 25, 2018 Jon Brodkin, Arstechnica.com Educate! California, Net Neutrality, Verizon

A fire department whose data was throttled by Verizon Wireless while it was fighting California's largest-ever wildfire has rejected Verizon's claim that the throttling was just a customer service error and "has nothing to do with net neutrality." The throttling "has everything to do with net neutrality," a Santa Clara County official said. Verizon yesterday acknowledged that it shouldn't have continued throttling Santa Clara County Fire Department's "unlimited" data service while the department was battling the Mendocino Complex Fire. Verizon said the department had chosen an unlimited data plan that gets throttled to speeds of 200kbps or 600kbps after using 25GB a month but that Verizon failed to follow its policy of "remov[ing] data speed restrictions when contacted in emergency situations."

Net Neutrality Protests Hitting Verizon Stores In U.S. During Holiday Season

November 22, 2017 Evan Greer, tumblr.fightforthefuture.org Resist! FCC, Internet, Net Neutrality, Verizon

By Evan Greer for Fight for the Future - Ajit Pai’s plan is expected to contain a “total repeal” of net neutrality protections, posing a grave threat to the future of freedom of expression, access to information, and small businesses particularly for communities of color and low income communities. The December 7 protests represent growing grassroots backlash to the FCC’s plan, which polls show is wildly unpopular with people from across the political spectrum. The events are supported by Team Internet, a grassroots network of nearly half a million volunteer activists spearheaded by Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, and Free Press Action Fund, three of the groups behind the massive July 12 net neutrality day of action that drove millions of comments, emails, and phone calls to the FCC and Congress. Over recent months the groups behind the protests have organized thousands of constituents to attend more than 600 town halls and meetings with lawmakers to demand their support for net neutrality. A phone call campaign through BattleForTheNet.com has generated nearly 250,000 phone calls to legislators offices. At the protests participants will be encouraged to take a group photo and tweet it at their local members of Congress. Where possible, protesters will march to a nearby lawmaker’s office and deliver petition signatures. Protests are currently planned in Phoenix, Denver, San Francisco, New York City, Indianapolis, Miami, Boston, Seattle, and several other cities across the country.

Big Gains For Striking Verizon Workers In New Agreement

May 31, 2016 Staff, www.standuptoverizon.com Resist! Verizon, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Staff of Stand Up To Verizon - Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers who have been on strike since April 13 are celebrating big gains after reaching a tentative agreement with the company. After 45 days of the largest strike in recent history, Verizon will add 1,300 new east coast call center jobs, and reverse several other outsourcing initiatives that will create new field technician jobs. The four-year proposed agreement provides 10.9% in raises, a $1250 signing bonus in the Mid1Atlantic and a $1000 signing bonus plus a $250 healthcare reimbursement account

Verizon Strikers V. US Oligarchy, What’s Wrong With US Economy

May 16, 2016 James A. Parrott, www.salon.com Resist! Strikes, Verizon

By James A. Parrott for Salon - Verizon workers have been without a contract since last August, which has led nearly 40,000 workers to go on strike in states from Virginia to Massachusetts for the past month. Verizon has about 40 percent fewer unionized U.S. workers now than a decade ago, and the telecommunications giant wants to send thousands more jobs offshore and outsource additional work to low-wage non-union contractors. In a presidential election year in which the electorate is motivated by deep economic anxiety over the loss of good paying jobs...

Verizon Strikers Hold National Day Of Action, Continue Strike

May 7, 2016 Eric Kiefer, www.patch.com Resist! Strikes, Verizon, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Eric Kiefer for Hoboken Patch - May 6, 2016 – As the Verizon worker strike of 2016 heads into its 24th day, both sides appear to be digging in for a protracted battle. Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) launched a “Day of Action” on Thursday, reportedly holding protests at 400 locations nationwide, including an action outside a Verizon shareholder meeting in Albuquerque that ended with 15 arrests.

Verizon Strike Needs To Be A Line In The Sand

May 6, 2016 Joe Richard and Ruth Hurley, www.socialistworker.org Resist! Corporations, Strikes, Verizon, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Joe Richard and Ruth Hurley for Socialist Worker - The biggest US strike in years has entered its third week, with 39,000 Verizon workers walking the picket lines and holding fiery protests across the Northeast US. Involving the Communication Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the Verizon strike is the nation's largest since the last walkout at Verizon almost five years ago. And the stakes couldn't be higher -- not only for Verizon employees, but all workers.

Verizon Strike In Week Three, Affecting Company Operations

May 2, 2016 Dave Johnson, www.ourfuture.org Resist! Corporations, Strikes, Verizon, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Dave Johnson for Campaign for America's Future - The Communications Workers of America (CWA) strike at Verizon is now in week three. Thirty-nine thousand workers are striking to preserve middle class wages in the U.S. The strike is affecting company operations and customers are feeling it, but the executives want their huge paychecks, so the strike continues. At Time, Martha White reports: Since nearly 40,000 union members walked off the job at Verizon two weeks ago, the telecom giant has been scrambling to keep its systems up and running, but it seems to be falling behind in one critical area: reputation.

Verizon’s Reputation Plummeting As Workers Strike

April 29, 2016 Martha C. White, www.time.com Educate! Strikes, Verizon, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Martha C. White for Time - Since nearly 40,000 union members walked off the job at Verizon two weeks ago, the telecom giant has been scrambling to keep its systems up and running, but it seems to be falling behind in one critical area: reputation. How the labor standoff between the striking communications workers and Verizon will eventually play out is anybody’s guess, but consumer perception of the telecom giant has fallen to a three-year low, according to YouGov’s Brand Index.

Five Reasons To Care About The Verizon Strike

April 14, 2016 Mackenzie Baris, www.jwj.org Resist! Strikes, Verizon, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Mackenzie Baris for Jobs With Justice - Today, unions of working people at Verizon announced that theywill strike on Wednesday morning if their bosses fail to come to the table to negotiate a mutually beneficial agreement. More than 39,000 Verizon employees, members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), are ready to take the streets to demand a fair return on their work. During the last round of contract negotiations in 2011, Verizon came to the table with a long list of demands that would have undone decades of hard-earned progress.

Verizon Workers Announce Strike Deadline Of Wednesday, April 13th

April 12, 2016 Staff, www.fiercetelecom.com Resist! Strikes, Verizon, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Staff of Fierce Telecom - After trying for ten months to reach a fair contract, nearly 40,000 Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Virginia will go on strike at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, April 13 if a fair agreement is not reached by then. The Verizon strike will be by far the largest work stoppage in the country in recent years. "We're standing up for working families and standing up to Verizon's corporate greed," said CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor.

Verizon’s Undeletable ‘Supercookies’ Track Users’ Web Activities

November 5, 2014 No 2 NSA, www.no2nsa.x10.bz Educate! Privacy, Surveillance, Verizon

The profits made by Google and Facebook from trading users’ choices and habits to ad companies are prompting other communication giants such as Verizon, to collect data on their customers, mostly without their knowledge. Verizon Wireless has been actively implementing its new advertising program called Precision Market Insights (reportedly started in 2012), which tracks web activities of approximately 106 million Verizon customers when they are web surfing from portable devices, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reports. The tracker registers which sites people visit and how much time they spend there, and even what apps they use on their smartphones and how exactly. The most interesting is the way Verizon collects the valuable data – by forcibly installing “perma-cookies” that track people’s activities on the web on personal devices, reports Wired.

Rallies Against Comcast Merger & For Net Neutrality Today

September 15, 2014 Julia Graber, www.freepress.net Resist! Comcast, Internet, Net Neutrality, Verizon

Today’s the final day to comment on FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s plan to create a two-tiered Internet — and at lunchtime I gathered with a crowd of 100 activists outside Comcast’s headquarters in Philadelphia. We were there for a Free Press rally to save the Internet ... and we came to demand real Net Neutrality and oppose the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger. Joseph Torres of Free Press, Bryan Mercer and Hannah Sassaman of the Media Mobilizing Project, Vanessa Graber of Common Frequency and Chris Rabb of Temple University all gave brief speeches, and then people in the crowd spoke out. We livestreamed everyone’s testimonials to a digital billboard our friends at Fight for the Future stationed right in front of the FCC building in Washington, D.C. “So far,” said Torres, “Tom Wheeler has sided with the big broadband companies, demonstrating just how out of touch he is. He doesn’t seem to understand why millions of people have called on him to protect real Net Neutrality by treating Internet service providers as common carriers.”

Germany Cancels Verizon Contract Over NSA Spying

June 28, 2014 Reuters, www.reuters.com Educate! Business, Germany, Surveillance, Verizon

The German government has cancelled a contract with U.S. telecoms firm Verizon Communications Inc VZ.N as part of an overhaul of its internal communications, prompted by revelations last year of U.S. government spying. Reports based on disclosures by former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden alleged Washington had conducted mass surveillance in Germany and had even eavesdropped on Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone. Berlin subsequently demanded talks with Washington on a "no-spy" deal, but these collapsed after the United States appeared unwilling to give the assurances Germany wanted. Germany also launched an overhaul of its internal communications and secure government networks. This is one of the first actions involving a U.S. firm to result. "The pressures on networks as well as the risks from highly developed viruses or Trojans are rising," Germany's Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. "Furthermore, the ties revealed between foreign intelligence agencies and firms in the wake of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) affair show that the German government needs a very high level of security for its critical networks."

Video: The Day We Fight Back Against The NSA

February 4, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Aaron Swartz, National Security Administration, New York City Light Brigade, NSA, PIPA, Protest NSA, SOPA, The day we fight back, The day we fight back against the NSA, The Illuminator Art Collective, Verizon, Video

Activists in New York City commandeered the Verizon building to promote the February 11th day of action to stop the NSA. Members of the New York City Light Brigade, The Illuminator Art Collective and other allies turned the Verizon building in downtown New York into a large billboard to project the all seeing “NSA eye” along with text stating “you will never be alone”, “our eye is on you”, and “Wherever you go, whatever you do, you are under surveillance.”

Daily movement news and resources