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President Of PA AFL-CIO Addresses Verizon Strike

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Rick Bloomingdale, the President of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, spoke out on behalf of almost 40,000 Verizon workers along the east coast who went on strike this morning.

Bloomingdale, speaking with Dom Giordano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, defended Verizon employees as dedicated to the company and the services they provide.

 

"They're skilled workers who have spent a lifetime developing skills to make sure that we get the best to our homes. These are folks who have taken the time to be educated, maybe not through college, but to be educated on the job, take training courses to make sure that when that cell signal or that landline, and Verizon, that TV comes on, it's a clear signal that we have, Fios is great in our homes, our internet signals are terrific."

He said that Verizon has more than enough money for executive pay, but can't muster up enough for rank and file employees.

"It certainly is about corporate greed when you have a CEO making $18 million, 200 times what the average worker makes. No question, he's running a big corporation but folks have got to decide whether or not that's adequate or too much. If somebody gave me a million dollars a year, I could easily live on that. I'm not sure why people really need $18 million."

Bloomingdale also weighed in on the 2016 presidential election, taking a shot at Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.

"Trump, the things he has said, he is no friend of workers. We make too much money and he talks about tariffs, and all that stuff. That's only to protect his rich buddies. That has nothing to do with the worker."

 

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