A Verizon Worker: Why I'm Striking [telecom]

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BY ISAAC COLLAZO

On Tuesday night, I put my boys to bed and made the trip from Brooklyn to Manhattan to work my last shift at Verizon before our strike - the biggest U.S. strike in years. If it had been a normal day, I would've left work at 7:30 a.m. and headed home to make sure my boys were ready to start their day. But on Wednesday at 6 a.m., I joined my co-workers on the picket line.

Many people wonder how I can afford to strike. I can't. It's because of my boys that I have no choice but to strike. Verizon is pushing to eliminate good, middle-class jobs and make it impossible for someone like me, a technician with an associate's degree, to earn a decent living for my family in New York.