---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <nhq25f$he7$1@dont-email.me> Date: Sat, 21 May 2016 12:28:56 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon strikers denounce federal mediation and CWA news blackout By Steve Light and Alan Whyte A World Socialist Web Site Verizon Strike Newsletter reporting team spoke to striking Verizon workers on the picket line in New York City and Virginia. Workers expressed concern over the intervention of the Obama administration in the contract talks and the news blackout being imposed by the leadership of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). Workers said they were determined to defeat any attempt by the unions to repeat the 2011 sellout, when a strike was ended without a contract and concessions were imposed by a federal mediator. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/05/21/intr-m21.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <nhq2er$j29$1@dont-email.me> Date: Sat, 21 May 2016 12:33:55 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon Pain From Strike Seen Growing; Wells Fargo Cuts Estimates By REINHARDT KRAUSE Verizon Communications is starting to feel the pain from the ongoing strike by nearly 40,000 wireline workers, according to Wells Fargo, which on Friday lowered its Q2 and full-year profit-margin and revenue estimates for the telecom giant. Two unions representing about 39,000 Verizon landline workers, including those that work on its FiOS TV and broadband services, went on strike April 13. Verizon's wireless workers, however, are not unionized, except for roughly 100 employees. Verizon has a total workforce of nearly 178,000. http://www.investors.com/news/technology/verizon-pain-from-strike-growing-wells-fargo-cuts-estimates/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <5840ca2f-9ca2-4bd4-a261-007eed4fb6cd@googlegroups.com> Date: Fri, 20 May 2016 12:08:01 -0700 (PDT) From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> Subject: Hold Onto Your Hats: North American Pay TV Forecast Is Stormy By Laura Hamilton, CED, 05/20/2016 North American pay TV revenues are predicted to fall by $13.5 billion between 2015 and 2021, according to Research and Markets' new "Digital TV World Revenue Forecasts." The report calls out cord cutting as responsible for some of the loss, but it says greater competition and conversion to bundles (with the lower revenues for TV than standalone offers) as more pressing factors. [snip] "Most of the rest of the world will not follow the North American experience," Murray says. "True, pay TV revenues will fall in 27 countries between 2015 and 2021, but not to the same extent as in Canada and the U.S. Most countries are nowhere near the market maturity achieved in North America." http://www.cedmagazine.com -or- http://tinyurl.com/hobj6pt Furthermore most countries don't have laws like the grotesquely-misnamed "Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992" that allows broadcast stations to demand even-increasing retransmission-consent fees and grants them the right to demand that MPVDs carry, and pay for, co-owned non-broadcast channels. Neal McLain aka "Texas Voter" ***** Moderator's Note ***** The problem with declining TV revenues is that cable operators will try to compensate by raising phone and internet fees. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <nhq2m3$jru$1@dont-email.me> Date: Sat, 21 May 2016 12:37:47 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: The Verizon Strike Is Not Just About Wages. It Is About Power and Domination Over Workers. BY ALEX GOUREVITCH Bruce has worked construction for Verizon for nearly thirty years and he is on strike. Walking a picket outside a Verizon Wireless store, he explains why: "I love this job. It's outdoors, you get dirty, you get to do things. You see that island over there, I can tell you where each of the manholes are. I've been in every one of these buildings here," he says, pointing to a cafe, then some office buildings, a travel agency, and a few restaurants. "I don't like not working, just standing around here. But we gotta do this. I mean, I love this job but I don't want it for my children." Only a few Verizon workers are picketing this Massachusetts location, standing calmly in the signature red shirts of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) holding placards emblazoned "On Strike!" http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19142/the_verizon_strike_isnt_just_about_wages_and_benefits._it_is_about_power_an -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Fri, 27 May 2016