Two Birds, One Big Stone
On Wednesday, August 17th, the Department of Education's Panel for Education Policy will vote on a $120 million contract with telecom giant Verizon. GEM, the Grassroots Education Movement has asked The MANY to endorse the picketing, protesting and push-back of Verizon's multimillion dollar, 2-year contract that the PEP is deciding to grant-- all the while we have massive cuts to our schools and 45,000 Verizon workers are on strike!
I unequivocally said yes, and sent a message to our brain-trust letting them know. A parent leader replied by email and asked,
"So who should get the contract?"
For me, the answer is simple. The contract should go to a company that treats its' workers fairly by a management willing to make some personal sacrifices in their own salaries, pensions and health care coverage. Even if that means forcing Verizon to do what's right and just through concessions because the public will not have it any other way.
Did anyone read the "letter" from a mom who works for Verizon that another mom leader at The MANY sent around?
Verizon isn't having tough times at all-this year they already made $6 billion dollars. And the year's not over! Everyone knows that billionaires got bailouts and people are still getting laid off, foreclosed, and cut back. Our bosses make money that is inconceivable. Like $81 billion for former CEO Ivan Seidenberg. Really? $81 billion and you want me to pay 25% of my medical premiums? That seems a tiny bit hypocritical. When our bosses say "no one has the benefits you do! Why should you be special?" what they are really saying is "no wage worker has what you do! Why do YOU deserve what WE have?"
The above might have been written by a PR firm on behalf of workers' rights' propaganda, but I believe that the CEO and his upper management board of directors will be just fine without the DoE's contract.
Big props to the NYC Parents Blog (Leonie Haimson) for stating the following 5 reasons why the PEP should NOT grant this contract to Verizon:
1. Verizon's management has demanded a long list of concessions, including cutting their health benefits, pensions, and sick time - givebacks amounting to $20,000 per worker. Meanwhile, the company has $100 billion in revenue, net profits of $6 billion, and Verizon Wireless just paid its parent company a $10 billion dividend. The top five company executives have been paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars over the last four years. Why should the city be contracting with such a greedy company?
2. Verizon is implicated in the recent scandal in which the Special Commissioner of Investigation found that a consultant named Ross Lanham in charge of wiring our schools stole $3.6 million dollars through a false billing scheme, and that Verizon "facilitated this fraud http://gothamschools.org/2011/04/29/report-on-thieving-doe-consultant-damning-for-ibm-and-verizon/
Though DOE admits that "Verizon is in discussion with the DOE regarding repaying of the overcharges," the company has not yet agreed to pay back any of this money, and the case has been referred to the US attorney's office for possible prosecution. Why should DOE reward Verizon by paying the company more millions?
3. In the same document (available above at the Gotham Schools' link) in which the DOE outlines the contract, there are twenty other instances listed of suspicious, unethical or illegal behavior on the part of Verizon, which have triggered numerous investigations.
4. As reported in the NYC Parents Blog, http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com /2011/05/five-year-capital-plan-hi-definition.html all NYC public schools are already wired for the internet; but this second round of wiring is for high-speed internet and hi-definition video; to facilitate the expansion of online learning and computerized testing, according to DOE. This is occurring at the same time as budgets are being cut to the bone, schools are losing valuable programs, and class sizes are rising to the highest level in over a decade. A quarter of our elementary schools are so overcrowded they had waiting lists for Kindergarten. It is outrageous that in the midst of this budget crisis, the DOE should be spending $120 million for unnecessary technological upgrades when children do not have seats in their neighborhood schools.
5. This contract with Verizon began on January 1, 2011, and DOE is only now asking for the PEP to approve it “retroactively.” But there is no allowance for retroactive contracts in state law, unless the chancellor finds that due to an emergency, it is necessary for “the preservation of student health, safety or general welfare” and provides a written justification. This was never done. Thus this contract with Verizon is likely illegal on the face of it.
And here's a final thought:
Verizon's upper level executives have no just reason to earn millions for sitting in plush, air-conditioned offices having meetings with lawyers about NOT paying back money they colluded from a robber of the DoE, all the while cutting back on their workers meager salaries for performing their jobs in manholes, on telephone poles and in maze-like cubicles.
The protest at the PEP on August 17th is an opportunity to knock the heads of two birds with one stone: Stand up to big business billionaires and mega corporations, and give hell to the PEP for even considering this Verizon contract
Come to the protest and join The MANY and our allies on:
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
at 5 pm
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