In the summer of 2007, a CWA Local 1011 union manager told a Verizon work crew that they only needed to perform 3 “fiber to premises” jobs each day, and they could file for a full work day no matter how much time it actually took. Two employees, Salvatore DiStefano and Sebastian Taravell, refused to participate in the rip-off scheme, and informed other workers, supervisors and union management that the scheme was illegal. The reward for good business ethics? The two men were bombarded by a physical and psychological campaign of abuse. Union officials encouraged other union members to “do whatever you want with those two guys,” and allegedly announced that company corporate security was never to be called about such issues. “I don’t care if somebody comes to work with a gun saying they’re going to shoot people, you don’t say anything … we have a lot of problems here due to the fact there are ‘spies’ in the room,” said union vice president Joe Macaleer, referring to DiStefano and Taravell.
