CWA agrees to federal mediator, prepares sellout of Verizon strike [telecom]

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By Samuel Davidson

After telling striking workers for weeks that it would not accede to Verizon's demands for a federal mediator, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) agreed to mediation yesterday during talks in Washington, DC overseen by the Obama administration.

The CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) are preparing a reprise of the sellout of the 2011 strike, which was shut down after two weeks with the unions telling workers they should place their confidence in a federal mediator. Predictably Obama's mediator imposed a contract that imposed sweeping health care concessions on behalf of the telecom giant.