Contracts with the Communications Workers of America and the worldwide Brotherhood of Electrical Workers expire at midnight Saturday night. Verizon said in a statement Friday it has seen little progress toward a new agreement after seven weeks of negotiations and called the union’s proposals “unrealistic and out-of-touch in today’s marketplace”. Bloomberg reported that a strike would cover workers in the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions and lead to delays in service calls and installations for new phone and Internet customers. A strike looks inevitable, he said yesterday. “Unfortunately the union leadership doesn’t want to recognize the facts and decided that walking away was the best course for its members”. “The company has yet to offer any counterproposal or meaningful changes to their original proposal”.
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Verizon spokesman Rich Young said: “At this point, we remain committed to continuing to negotiate in good faith with our unions”. “We need to ensure that any dispute between our company and the unions does not impact our customers”. In addition, all union employees will get 100 shares of Frontier restricted stock upon the closing of the transaction to demonstrate Frontier’s commitment to its newest employees and their ownership in the company’s success.
According to the unions, the telecom company is demanding the workers to increase their health care contributions considerably and also make concession on pensions.
Union leaders say Verizon workers will stay on the job.
“We’re fighting for our future”, Ryan said. Verizon’s plans to cut costs by controlling healthcare and pension-related benefits over a three-year period are at the centre of union negotiations.
Workers walked off the job for two weeks in 2011 during contract negotiations, which then dragged into the next year. The mayors of Syracuse and Kingston, two cities that could potentially be affected by the strike, have joined the Communication Workers Association at the bargaining table in Rye, New York.
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Verizon has trained managers to fill in, in case of a strike, so service would continue without interruption.
