(Original Post)
by Joan Engebretson November 14th, 2011
The Communications Workers of America on Friday accused Verizon Communications of being one of the nation’s biggest tax dodgers for the last three years. The comment came in an advisory sent to the media to advise them of a conference call scheduled for tomorrow titled “Unpaid Bills: How Verizon Shortchanges Government Through Tax Dodging and Subsidies.”
The CWA’s charge draws on a report by Citizens for Tax Justice and Good Jobs First, which found that 78 out of 280 corporations analyzed did not pay federal taxes in at least one of the past three years. “Verizon has proven itself to be one of the worst offenders, manipulating state revenue rules, seeking economic development subsidies and structuring its business and tax affairs to produce a negative federal income tax rate,” the media advisory states. The advisory also notes that Verizon has received state and local tax subsidies in at least 13 states and has put the Reverse Morris Trust tax loophole to extensive use, avoiding $1.5 billion in taxes on the sale of its landlines and other assets.
The CWA and Verizon have been trading barbs since this summer, when the carrier’s contracts with the CWA and another union representing a total of about 45,000 workers, expired. After a brief strike, the 50,000 workers—the majority of which are represented by the CWA–returned to work without a contract.
Verizon is asking the union for concessions, arguing that it must reduce costs in its landline business, where most of the 45,000 employees work (CP: Verizon confirms it will seek concessions from union workers).
The CWA maintains that Verizon operates at a profit and continues to see strong performance in its wireless business and therefore should not be making an attack on the middle class way of life (CP: CWA: Verizon wants union to make ‘punitive’ healthcare concessions — and won’t ‘bargain at all’).
Tomorrow’s conference call is the union’s latest attempt to portray Verizon as a fat cat that ought to be able to afford more generous benefits packages for its employees.