CWA Challenges NYPSC Verizon Probe Extension
Reverse a decision to give Verizon more time in the New York Public Service Commission probe of the telco’s copper service quality, the Communications Workers of America said. The secretary for the New York PSC last week granted Verizon’s request…
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to extend its deadline for filing testimony until 45 days after the end of the current East Coast strike (see 1605120048). But in an appeal to the full PSC Wednesday, CWA sought a reversal of that decision, saying the PSC unfairly gave CWA too little time to respond to Verizon's request. “The Secretary has indefinitely mothballed a proceeding essential to the [public] interest, on scant evidence, no inquiry, without affording parties an opportunity to oppose, with no examination of reasonable alternatives that would keep the process going, and with unseemly haste.” Verizon had said it needed the extension because it redeployed the employees who would prepare testimony to filling in for union workers in the East Coast strike. But CWA said Verizon must support its claim. “The Ruling is unsupported by evidence of actual hardship and inability to comply with the original deadlines in the Order,” it said. “Mere assertions by Verizon are legally insufficient to justify an indefinite suspension of the proceedings.” Earlier this week, CWA opposed an extension requested by Verizon in a similar probe in Pennsylvania (see 1605170020).