Bernie Sanders has thrown his support behind unionized Verizon employees ahead of a potential labor strike, but public records show the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign has paid the telecommunications company six-figure sums.
Sanders addressed a protest outside Verizon’s Philadelphia headquarters last week, accusing the company of being more "concerned with compensation packages for CEOs than about the needs of hard working people who want nothing more than to be able to live in dignity and security and bring their kids up in a decent way."
The protesters were affiliated with the Communications Workers of America union, which has endorsed Sanders’ campaign. Verizon employees with CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are considering a massive strike against Verizon this week.
Sanders’ stop in Philadelphia came months after he joined Verizon employees on a picket line outside of a company building in New York.
As the socialist Vermont senator has spoken out against Verizon, his campaign has been paying the company large sums for telephone and internet service, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The campaign has reported more than $130,000 in payments to Verizon since last year. That money bought internet service from the company and cell phones from Verizon retail stores.
The campaign also paid $10,000 in February to rent out the Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie, Texas, for a campaign event. Verizon bought the venue’s naming rights in 2010.
Sanders’ congressional campaigns and his leadership PAC have also paid for Verizon’s services. They have reported a combined $34,000 in payments to the company since Sanders’ 2000 House reelection campaign.
The Sanders campaign did not respond to questions about its payments to Verizon and whether they would continue in light of the strike.
According to CWA, workers at both Verizon telecommunications offices and its retail stores have been affected by contractual disputes at the center of the union’s impending work stoppage.
The company "wants to gut job security protections, contract out more work, offshore jobs to Mexico, the Philippines and other locations and require technicians to work away from home for as long as two months without seeing their families," CWA said in a statement announcing the Wednesday strike deadline.
"Verizon is also refusing to negotiate any improvements in wages, benefits or working conditions for Verizon Wireless retail workers, who formed a union in 2014," the statement said.
Verizon executive Marc Reed says that the company "tried to work with union leaders to reach a deal. … Verizon has been moving the bargaining process forward, but now union leaders would rather make strike threats than constructively engage at the bargaining table."
According to the company, "Verizon’s 36,000 employees covered under these contracts currently have a wage and benefit package that averages more than $130,000 a year. Over 99 percent of these employees support the wireline business which in 2015, contributed about 29 percent of Verizon’s revenue but less than 7 percent of the Company’s operating income."