Employees will continue to work as negotiations continue after Aug. 1 contract expiration
Despite the lingering threat of a work stoppage, some 38,000 unionized Verizon Communications employees did not move forward with a strike following the midnight, Aug. 1, expiration of their contract.
Verizon and representatives from the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers left the bargaining table with the union considering a new proposal from Verizon.
“We are disappointed that after six weeks of good faith bargaining and a very strong effort by the company, we have been unable to reach new agreements with the unions,” said Marc Reed, chief administrative officer at Verizon. “Our employees will remain on the job serving the needs of our customers. In the meantime, we’ll continue to meet with union leadership with the goal of reaching agreements that are good for our customers and our employees and put Verizon’s wireline unit on a path toward success in the years to come.”
In case of a work stoppage, Verizon trained thousands of nonunion employees to potentially cover the jobs of striking unionized employees. Verizon also distributed an app designed to let employees report bad behavior on the part of other employees.
Union leadership, in a prepared statement, said the carrier “refuses to engage in serious bargaining towards a fair contract.”
“Verizon has earned $1 billion a month in profits over the last 18 months, and paid its top handful of executives $249 million over the last 5 years, but continues to insist on eliminating our job security and driving down our standard of living,” said Dennis Trainor, VP for CWA District 1 “We’re not going to take it, and we’re going to keep the fight going while we’re on the job.”
Trainor said the company has “barely moved” off its initial proposal entered on June 22.
The unions delineated objections to the Verizon proposal as eliminating job security; increasing health care costs; removing restrictions related to contracting out and offshore union jobs; cutting retirement benefits; reducing overtime and differentiated compensation; and eliminating the Family Leave Care plan.
“Millions of Americans rely on Verizon for the ability to communicate, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” Reed added. “We remain fully prepared to handle any work stoppage so that our products and services will be available where and when our customers need them.”
