Subject: [NEXTEL-1] CWA Charges Verizon and Two Officers with Wiretap Law Violation

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 18:57:50 -0400

CWA Charges Verizon and Two Officers with Wiretap Law Violation for Spying on 
Union Conference Call With Reporters

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The Communications Workers of America 
today filed suit against Verizon Communications, Verizon Wireless (Cellco 
Partnership) and two Verizon officers charging that the company officials violated 
federal anti-wiretapping laws by accessing an invitation-only CWA teleconference 
with reporters on August 13.

The complaint, filed in federal district court in the District of New Jersey, 
charges that Verizon Senior Vice President for Investor Relations Thomas 
Bartlett and Executive Director of Investor Relations Dominic Di Bucci violated 
Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act through their 
unauthorized monitoring of the call.

CWA had invited 27 specific journalists to hear about the union's 
negotiations with Verizon as well as plans by the AFL-CIO to support CWA members' 
bargaining efforts.  The conference call was led by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer 
Richard Trumka and CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, and reporters were 
invited to ask questions of the two leaders.

After the call, CWA learned that the two Verizon executives had gained access 
to the toll-free call-in number, which had been provided privately to the 
invited reporters, and listened in without announcing their presence, 
subsequently reporting the content of the conference to other company officials.

"This is an outrageous throwback to the old days of labor turmoil before the 
Wagner Act of 1935 finally outlawed the practice of management infiltration 
and spying on union activities," said CWA President Morton Bahr. "Such behavior 
by senior management officials at a critical time in our negotiations is not 
helpful to the process.  It's an insult to all of our members at Verizon and 
cannot be tolerated."

The lawsuit seeks a declaration that the Verizon officials' actions violated 
the law, that Bartlett and Di Bucci be enjoined from further such conduct, and 
that the union be awarded punitive damages.

SOURCE  Communications Workers of America  

CO:  Communications Workers of America; CWA; Verizon Communications; Verizon  
    Wireless

ST:  District of Columbia

SU:  LAW LBR

Web site:  http://www.cwa-union.org

http://www.prnewswire.com
   
08/19/2003 16:53 EDT

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From: Rick Parrish <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 22:47:06 -0500

[email-masked] wrote:

>CWA Charges Verizon and Two Officers with Wiretap Law Violation for Spying on Union Conference Call With Reporters
>
I wonder if VZ was the actual service provider for the conference call. 
Big loop hole there.

-rick