The unions representing tens of thousands of Verizon employees, including many here in Western New York, say their members will be walking off the job and onto the picket line at 6 a.m. Wednesday unless a deal is reached with the telecom giant. Issues still on the table include healthcare, offshoring call center jobs, work rules and pensions.
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“But judging from numbers alone, Verizon’s wireline customers can reasonably expect a deterioration in customer service quality”, the Times wrote.
The strike was called by the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers – unions that jointly represent almost 40,000 employees in Verizon’s wireline operations. Unionized workers are responsible for FiOS, which the unions argue should be expanded. Verizon says Wireless workers make the company huge profits, but it’s refusing to give them any improvements – even though they’re some of the lowest paid people at Verizon.
Their latest contract expired in August and so far, the unions and management say negations have been unsuccessful.
Verizon recently sold off huge swaths of its landline network in urban areas of California, Texas, and Florida, raising $10 billion that it has said it will invest in expanding its wireless networks and acquiring content networks like AOL and, possibly, Yahoo. The company said that while its wireline business generates 29 percent of total revenue, only about 7 percent is left as operating income.
About 39,000 Verizon workers are on strike after last-ditch talks between the company and unions failed Tuesday night. A picket line went up at 6 a.m.in front of the Verizon facility at 9th and Race streets in the Chinatown section of Philadelphia.
Leah Skeeters, a customer service clerk from Catonsville who has been with Verizon for 15 years, said the company is not acting fairly in its negotiations with its employees.
Verizon’s 36,000 employees covered under these contracts now have a wage and benefit package that averages more than $130,000 a year, according to the company.
“It’s regrettable that union leaders have called a strike, a move that hurts all of our employees”, he said. Verizon landline and cable workers on the East Coast walked off the job Wednesday morning after little progress in negotiations since their contract expired almost eight months ago. “Unfortunately, union leaders have their own agenda rooted in the past and are ignoring today’s digital realities”. “Since last June, we’ve worked diligently to try and reach agreements that would be good for our employees, good for our customers and make the wireline business more successful now and in the future”. “Calling a strike benefits no one, and brings us no closer to resolution”.
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There’s no word how long the strike may last.
