Verizon headquarters in Manhattan on May 12, 2015.
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In nine states, Verizon workers have voted to strike if it become necessary due to a dispute about a contract, said an official from the union at a Saturday rally.
“Our members are clear and they are determined”, said Dennis Trainor, an official with the Communications Workers of America union.
At the rally in New York, the CWA announced that 86 percent of Verizon workers who voted in a recent poll backed strike action if required. A new contract that covers more than 39,000 workers that the CWA and the worldwide Brotherhood of Electric Workers represent ends on August 1 at midnight. It includes employees who work in landline telephone operations and the popular FiOS network, which bundles together Internet, phone and television services.
The company’s union-represented employees in the East work under 27 collective bargaining agreements in nine eastern states in the United States and Washington D.C. Verizon’s plans to cut costs by conrolling healthcare and pension-related benefits over a three-year period are at the center of union negotiations.
Verizon spokesman Rich Young said that the company had made the unions “a solid proposal that recognizes the changing communications landscape and offers a path toward success”.
According to Young, quite a few aspects of this contract were set up more than 10 years ago and weren’t relevant any longer in such an industry which was constantly facing structural change and increased pressure.
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Verizon said in late June it offered salary hikes to 39,000 employees in its East wireline business after its first negotiating session with representatives of the two unions. In view of the threat of a strike, Verizon is training non-unionized workers to take over additional roles to ensure services are not disrupted if the unionized staff would walk off their jobs.
