August 9, 2011

Saboteurs Attack Verizon

Verizon is dealing with a strike by 45,000 of the company's wireline employees represented by the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Verizon says it has repaired at least 12 acts of sabotage to its communications facilities in four states, starting August 6 and continuing after the strike began on August 7.

The strike involves union-represented Verizon wireline employees in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Washington, D.C.  Verizon Wireless is not part of this strike, and its customers are not affected by it.

"Our contingency plan is in full effect, and our management employees are stepping in to cover our workload," said Bob Mudge, Verizon president of consumer and mass markets, in a statement.

The incidents of sabotage have affected phone, Internet and TV service in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York and include:

• Ten incidents of fiber-optic lines being deliberately cut in the Bronx, Pomona, Farmingdale and Guilderland in New York; two separate incidents in Tewksbury in Massachusetts; incidents in Bel Air in Maryland, and East Dover, Oakland and Plainfield in New Jersey.
• An outage due to stolen electronic equipment in Cedar Grove, N.J., affecting a local police department, among other customers.
• An incident due to tampering with a heating system at a central office in Manhattan.