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American Morning
'Minding Your Business'
Aired August 04, 2003 - 07:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: What kind of vibe are we sensing at Verizon? As Andy Serwer checks in here "Minding Your Business" this morning, the talk there or is there any talk going on still there?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Well, there are talks going on, Leon, and that's good news for millions of phone customers in the United States. Verizon, the phone giant, was set to have its workers go on strike at midnight on Saturday. Everyone thought that was going to happen; apparently, it's not.
They continued talking on Sunday. Talks resume this morning at 10:00 a.m. -- 78,000 workers, that's about a third of their work force. And, you know, it's not just a northeastern company. They're the largest local phone company in the United States.
HARRIS: That's right.
SERWER: They're the largest wireless company -- that means cell phones -- 35 million Americans use Verizon cell phones. And there is that big rating that just came out last week showing that their service is better than anyone else's. So, a huge bit of stuff.
If there was to be a strike, you know, people, if you're trying to get stuff like information or a line installed in your house, I mean, forget about it. You're going to be lucky to get phone calls through.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Just like when they're not on strike.
SERWER: Or something like that. You remember some of these strikes, though, going back I think it was 1989 was the last big strike. And I mean, it just wreaks havoc on the economy. And, in fact, the markets are looking up a little bit this morning in the futures, because it looks like the strike will be resolved. You get a strike at a company like Verizon, it really can do some damage to the economy.
HARRIS: Well, it's surprising to hear the markets are looking up in August, period.
SERWER: Yes.
HARRIS: I mean, traditionally, August has been a month that is hard on the markets.
SERWER: It's a bad month, Leon, historically. And true to form, we started off the end of last week down. You can see here the final numbers for the week. We were off. Bucking a trend, we've been up for four weeks in a row.
And, you know, what happens? Well, there is stuff like the Russian crisis -- that happens in August. Saddam invades Kuwait back in 1990 -- that happens. And also people just go on vacation. That's what really happens in August, and people don't care, so the markets tend to go down.
HARRIS: Yes.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired August 4, 2003 - 07:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: What kind of vibe are we sensing at Verizon? As Andy Serwer checks in here "Minding Your Business" this morning, the talk there or is there any talk going on still there?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Well, there are talks going on, Leon, and that's good news for millions of phone customers in the United States. Verizon, the phone giant, was set to have its workers go on strike at midnight on Saturday. Everyone thought that was going to happen; apparently, it's not.
They continued talking on Sunday. Talks resume this morning at 10:00 a.m. -- 78,000 workers, that's about a third of their work force. And, you know, it's not just a northeastern company. They're the largest local phone company in the United States.
HARRIS: That's right.
SERWER: They're the largest wireless company -- that means cell phones -- 35 million Americans use Verizon cell phones. And there is that big rating that just came out last week showing that their service is better than anyone else's. So, a huge bit of stuff.
If there was to be a strike, you know, people, if you're trying to get stuff like information or a line installed in your house, I mean, forget about it. You're going to be lucky to get phone calls through.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Just like when they're not on strike.
SERWER: Or something like that. You remember some of these strikes, though, going back I think it was 1989 was the last big strike. And I mean, it just wreaks havoc on the economy. And, in fact, the markets are looking up a little bit this morning in the futures, because it looks like the strike will be resolved. You get a strike at a company like Verizon, it really can do some damage to the economy.
HARRIS: Well, it's surprising to hear the markets are looking up in August, period.
SERWER: Yes.
HARRIS: I mean, traditionally, August has been a month that is hard on the markets.
SERWER: It's a bad month, Leon, historically. And true to form, we started off the end of last week down. You can see here the final numbers for the week. We were off. Bucking a trend, we've been up for four weeks in a row.
And, you know, what happens? Well, there is stuff like the Russian crisis -- that happens in August. Saddam invades Kuwait back in 1990 -- that happens. And also people just go on vacation. That's what really happens in August, and people don't care, so the markets tend to go down.
HARRIS: Yes.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
