Thursday, 14 April 2016 00:00
By Wilson Dizard,
Truthout | Report
A labor strike by the
Communications Workers of America (CWA) served as the centerpiece
Wednesday of Sen. Bernie Sanders' rally in New York City, where even his most
plugged in supporters said they'd settle for slower internet if it meant the
CWA would win.
With Donald Trump and Hillary
Clinton getting the lion's share of airtime on cable news, Sanders' campaign
has relied on the internet to get its message out to supporters, many of them
young people voting for the first time. Many young people in the United States
also rely on the internet for almost every aspect of their daily life, from
getting around to getting an education.
Despite bringing in thousands
of non-union workers to cover striking CWA workers' jobs, Verizon warned
customers this week that "they may experience service interruptions as
[the company] works to solve issues with union leaders," PennLive reported.
Seeking better pay and working
conditions, CWA members said that they wondered if young people understood that
their electronic lives don't happen through magic, but through the sweat and
blood of blue-collar workers.
"I don't know. They
should ask their parents. Ask them how they grew up, how everything was
built," said Terry Loughland, 52, who has been with Verizon for 28 years,
beginning back when it was Bell Atlantic. "It takes a lot to build this
communications infrastructure. It doesn't just come. But how'd it get there?
How'd you get there? I'm middle class. People might think I'm making a lot of
money but I'm not. I got three kids in college, and I'm barely getting
by."
[…]
At the workers' rally, Sanders
called Verizon "another major American corporation trying to destroy the
lives of working Americans," The Huffington Post reported.
Sanders received an endorsement from the CWA in December 2015. The union
represents Truthout's staff workers.
"Verizon is one of the
largest, most profitable corporations in this country," Sanders told
striking Verizon workers. "[The company wants] to outsource decent-paying
jobs. They want to give their CEO $20 million a year."
Some of the youngest Sanders
supporters, now just graduating high school with little recollection of the
world before Facebook and the iPhone, said they would give up connectivity if
it meant workers would win.
Even some high school seniors
pledged to give up the internet in solidarity with the workers -- even for a
month.
"I would support the CWA
and not Verizon," said Malena Suarez, 17, from Queens, who hopes to study
political science. "I think that by supporting Verizon you are just
indulging in a toxic capitalist society we live in. But to support the workers
is to support our First Amendment right to strike. It's the voice of the people
we're hearing and not the voice of the corporations."
Oscar Salazar, 20, a student
at Westchester Community College, stood by the fountain in Manhattan's
Washington Square Park wearing a T-shirt covered in photos of Sanders' face.
He'd bought the apparel online. Yet even if it meant having to deal with slower
internet speeds, Salazar said he'd support a strike.
"They deserve to have a
living wage," he said, along with "all the rights that come with a
living wage [like] the time off work ... it's not right for them to live in New
York City where it's very expensive."
"Even if I had no
internet, I would be able to adapt," the computer science and political
science student said. "I feel like we would make it work. We shouldn't
punish the workers."
The vice president of the New
York University College Democrats, Michael DeLuca, 21, who is studying
political science and Mandarin Chinese, said he was willing to make that
temporary trade-off -- slower internet in the service of workers' rights -- but
said it wasn't necessary.
"I don't think those
kinds of sacrifices are needed. Businesses have had to compensate for this kind
of thing forever. They can afford to treat their workers properly and also
offer the same level of service," he said.
"I'm comfortable with
some disruption in the short term. That's how we get a lot of the progress we
see in this country. But in the long term, the burden is on the business to
treat their workers fairly and then deal with the costs of that," DeLuca
added.
Copyright, Truthout. May not
be reprinted without permission.
Wilson Dizard is a freelance
reporter and photographer whose work has appeared at Al Jazeera America and the
New York Post.
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