Sharing lessons from Stop the Sale

Last weekend the "Building a Movement for Worker Justice" conference in Vermont brought together hundreds of workers, students, health care providers, educators, and other activists for a series of workshops and discussions focusing on workers' rights, livable wages, economic justice, and quality health care.  The conference was hosted by Vermont Workers' Center/Jobs with Justice.

CWA President Larry Cohen attended the conference and highlighted the recent campaign by labor and community activists to “Stop the Sale” of Verizon’s landlines in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire to FairPoint communications - a small, financially unstable company.  FairPoint will not be able to provide the quality service or build out high speed Internet networks for New Englanders.  If the sale goes through, New Englanders are at risk of falling even further behind when it comes to access to high speed Internet. 

Cohen told reporters at a media briefing before the conference:

CWA’s three principal concerns are: how do we set good public policy that will enable customers to have access to real high speed Internet; how does the coming global credit crunch affect this deal; and what happens to workers who have invested their lives in this work and find they now work for a company with an overwhelming debt structure and financial problems. 

FairPoint is not the only alternative.  Cohen pointed out that Verizon could spin off its northern New England operations as an independent company without the huge debt load that burdens FairPoint.

CWA, IBEW and community allies are continuing to press the case against FairPoint this week focusing their efforts in New Hampshire and Vermont. 

Click here to see additional pictures from the conference.

The point? It’s not fair. (Speed Matters)

Verizon's bad deal remains stalled in NH, VT and ME (Speed Matters)

No FairPoint New Hampshire

No FairPoint Vermont

Building a Movement for Worker Justice photo gallery (Picasa)