Do you think your Verizon Wireless bill is too high? Protestors in Santa Monica, today, protested not about the high bills themselves but that Verizon does not pay corporate taxes.
Protestors claimed to be "outing" corporate tax dodgers and their allies in Congress by asking them to pay their fair share at the Santa Monica Verizon Wireless store at 26th Street and Wilshire Blvd.
Protesters tried to deliver a petition with thousands of signatures demanding that Verizon leave the “Fix The Debt” coalition and pay their fair share of taxes to invest in vital community programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
We were able to talk to Bill Przylucki, of POWER (People Organized for Westide Renewal.) He said that the protestors were not treated well at first by Verizon employees and the employees would not accept the petition.
"We arrived at 2:00 pm and we're staying until they accept our petition and send it to Lowell Mc dam, Verizon's CEO," Przylucki, told Wireless and Mobile News and reported that Verizon Wireless store reps called the police.
"Police need a raise. Police need a raise," Pryzlucki chanted when he hung up the phone to deal with the police officers, who arrived during our interview.
The police told the protestors that they had to right to protest outside. If the protestors stayed in the store, they could be arrested.
"We need to spread the petition to Verizon. If Lowell McAdam doesn't get the petition, we don't win.We wanted to take the petition and send it to McAdam and they refused. We need the Verizon employees to understand what we are doing," said Pryzlucki.
We heard Pryzlucki along with protestors chanting as they left, "We'll be back" and "Can your hear me, now?" from a Pryzlucki's cell phone.
POWER reported Verizon is a very profitable company and made $19.3 billion in U.S. pretax profits in 2008-2012, yet didn’t pay any federal income taxes during the period. Instead, it got $535 million in tax rebates.