Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders made a guest appearance Wednesday at a strike outside the Verizon office in New York City to speak with union workers who are protesting the company’s outsourcing of jobs to Mexico and elsewhere.
“They want to take away the health benefits that you have earned. They want to outsource decent paying jobs. They want to give their CEO $20 million a year,” Sanders shouted from a makeshift stage while surrounded by thousands of Verizon employees.
“In other words, this is just another major American corporation trying to destroy the lives of working Americans,” the Vermont senator said.
An estimated 36,000 Verizon workers went on strike Wednesday morning over the months they’ve gone without a contract due to Verizon’s inability to reach a labor agreement with their employees’ union, Communication Workers of America.
According to CNBC, the union is battling Verizon over its decision to outsource “5,000 jobs to workers in Mexico, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic” and hire “more low-wage, non-union contractors.”
“Today, you are standing up not just for justice for the lives of workers. You’re standing up for millions of Americans who don’t have a union,” Sanders told the workers on strike.
Sanders’ last-minute appearance comes as he campaigns for additional support in New York ahead of the state’s April 19 primary. The socialist senator received the endorsement of the New York Transit Workers union on Tuesday.
JUST IN: Bernie Sanders slams Verizon at workers’ picket line #verizonstrikehttps://t.co/VhiVgS4JUv
— CNBC (@CNBC) April 13, 2016
