The 15 workers at the Verizon stores in Everett and Lynnwood voted 11-1, with three challenged votes not enough to change the decision to join the Communications Workers of America. Among the workers’ claims: strong union-busting efforts by Verizon, including threats they’d lose their jobs and homes, understaffing and unlivable pay.
Steve Yu has worked nearly 20 years for Verizon. “We’re super excited,” Yu says, “We didn’t think it would be this overwhelming, but we convinced a lot of our co-workers to come this way, and they kind of see the light, and we’re hoping we can spread this and grow this to other locations now.” There is talk of other efforts to unionize stores in the Puget Sound area.
Verizon did not answer Northwest Newsradio’s request for response.
You can hear more from other workers in the video below, including a former manager at the Everett store, who believes she was wrongly fired for helping workers try to get some of the working conditions they’ve asked for, and from one of the Verizon workers in Brooklyn, New York, who became the first in the nation to unionize.
