Stewards Army Beats Verizon Deregulation Drive in Virginia

From the CWA National Web Site-Good Action by both Labor and Politician's
January 17, 2008
Action by the Stewards Army produced a big win in Virginia for Verizon consumers. In response to CWA's campaign to safeguard Verizon consumers and quality service and keep oversight of a critical public utility, Verizon has dropped its efforts in the state legislature to end the regulation of the sale of a telephone company.
District 2 staff, CWA locals throughout the state and the Virginia AFL-CIO are continuing to fight Verizon's attempt to end regulation of basic telephone service rates across the board for residential and business customers. Bills pending in both houses of the legislature would permit the total price deregulation of Verizon's operations; last year the State Corporation Commission had established a competitive test to assess whether prices could be deregulated.
In testimony to regulators and other public officials, CWA members have cited numerous examples of Verizon's failure to maintain basic telephone service across the state; the company is focusing attention on the build-out of FiOS – fiber optic Internet, television and phone service – in select areas but isn't building these next-generation networks in most communities in the state.