Verizon CEO: Sanders' Criticism Is 'Contemptible'

(RTTNews) - Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) CEO Lowell McAdam has lambasted Bernie Sanders for his comments that the telecom giant does not pay its federal income taxes. The Democratic presidential candidate has also accused Verizon of corporate greed.

In a LinkedIn post, McAdam said Sanders' "uninformed views are, in a word, contemptible" and that the senator is "disconnected from reality."

About 36,000 Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Virginia hit the picket lines on Wednesday, unable to hammer out a new labor agreement with the company.

After weeks of threatening to walk out, workers from the Communications Workers of America or CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers or IBEW officially went on strike. The CWA union has accused Verizon of wanting to lower wages and also contract out more jobs overseas.

Sanders had made an appearance at the Verizon picket line in Brooklyn on Wednesday and publicly backed the striking workers. The presidential hopeful accused Verizon of not paying its fair share of federal income taxes and not investing in American communities, in particular "the inner cities."

However, McAdam said in the blog post that Sanders' first accusation that Verizon does not pay its fair share of taxes is "just plain wrong."

"As our financial statements clearly show, we've paid more than $15.6 billion in taxes over the last two years - that's a 35% tax rate in 2015, for anyone who's counting. We've laid out the facts repeatedly and did so again yesterday," McAdam said.

The CEO challenged Sanders to show a company that has done more to invest in America than Verizon. He noted that in the last two years, Verizon has invested some $35 billion in infrastructure, nearly all of it in the U.S., and paid out more than $16 billion in dividends to the millions of average Americans who invest in the company's stock.

McAdam also said, "Contrary to Sen. Sanders's contention, our proposals do not call for mass layoffs or shipping jobs overseas. Rather, we've asked for more flexibility in routing calls and consolidating some of our call centers, some of which employ a handful of people."

McAdam cautioned that candidates in a Presidential campaign should base their arguments on the facts even when they do not fit their campaign narratives.

"I also get that big companies are an easy target for candidates looking for convenient villains for the economic distress felt by many of our citizens. But when rhetoric becomes disconnected from reality, we've crossed a dangerous line," the CEO noted.