Tag Archive for: strike

Robocall Strike Force set to take wraps off battle plan

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Two months after accepting its marching orders, the federal Robocall Strike Force chaired by AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and featuring industry heavyweights such as Verizon, Google and Apple, will tomorrow make public its plan for dramatically reducing the torrent of automated phone calls.

“The Robocall Strike Force is an industry-led group which has been working to develop comprehensive solutions to prevent, detect, and filter unwanted robocalls,” says the FCC.  “Robocalls and telemarketing calls are the number one source of consumer complaints received by the FCC.  However, giving consumers meaningful control over the calls and texts they receive requires collective action by the industry.”

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Network World Paul McNamara

Robocall Strike Force: Trial of one technique cut IRS scam complaints 90%

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An initial progress report by the FCC-sanctioned and industry-led Robocall Strike Force this afternoon was highlighted by the claim that a trial of a single fraud-prevention technique had resulted in a 90 percent reduction in consumer complaints about scams involving automated phone calls falsely claiming to be from the IRS.

Since the first meeting of the strike force in August, representatives from 30 companies held more than 100 meetings and produced a 47-page report detailing both their short-term accomplishments and future goals. And while the latter outweighed the former – a point emphasized by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler – there was a hopefulness expressed throughout the hour-long presentation that relief from the scourge of robocalls is on the way.

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Network World Paul McNamara

Verizon workers declare end to 44-day strike, claim “big gains”

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Verizon workers rallying in July 2015, just before their contract expired. (credit: Communications Workers of America)

Thirty-six thousand Verizon employees are close to going back to work because of an agreement struck by the company and union representatives.

The workers went on strike on April 13 after working without a contract for 10 months. The union said Verizon was seeking to move jobs offshore, outsource work to low-wage contractors, close call centers, and force technicians to go on months-long assignments away from home. Union reps also accused Verizon of cutting staff instead of living up to promises to install more FiOS fiber lines.

But there is now an agreement in principle to end the strike and sign a new four-year contract, US Labor Secretary Thomas Perez announced today.

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Technology Lab – Ars Technica

Verizon strike taking trickle-down toll on business customers

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With the strike by Verizon union members now in its fourth week – and no settlement appearing near — frustrations born of service delays and cancelations remain primarily the bane of consumers, although business customers are also taking on collateral damage, some of which may not be visible to the untrained eye.

That’s the view of David Rohde, a longtime industry watcher and senior consultant at TechCaliber in Washington D.C.

“Customers are asking their Verizon (Enterprise) account teams for, you name it – an inventory of current services, a next response to a bid for new services, a network management request that can’t otherwise be handled automatically – and the answer is coming back very frequently that those people aren’t around right now so you’re going to have to wait,” Rohde writes in a recent blog post.

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Network World Paul McNamara