The future is wireless. What’s not so clear is who’s going to be doing the work that allows you to place a phone call from almost anywhere in the world.
Eighty-seven thousand Old Fashioned Telephone union workers are on strike since Sunday at Verizon — the nation’s largest telecommunications company. What they want is to get in on the fast growing, billion-dollar wireless industry by organizing their mostly non-union wireless counterparts. At Verizon’s wireless division a mere “46” of thirty-two thousand workers are union members.
Verizon’s take is that the industry is so competitive, increased union representation would put them at a disadvantage. Shareholders could think so too. While old line labor numbers are rapidly dwindling across the country, the strike has broad implications for what’s now a mostly non-unionized high tech industry. Organized labor meets the new economy.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
George Brandon, editor of Telecommunication Reports Daily, an electronic news service of Telecommunications Reports
Paul Osterman, Professor of Human Resources and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Business
Eric Rabe, Vice President of Media Relations for Verizon
Steve Early, National Union Representative for the Communications Workers Union.