Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers walked off the job Wednesday in one of the largest U.S. strikes in recent years after contract talks hit an impasse.
The strike was called by the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which jointly represent employees such as customer services representatives and network technicians in Verizon Communications Inc.'s traditional wireline phone operations.
The strike could affect service in Verizon's Fios Internet, telephone and TV services businesses across several East Coast states. The walkout does not extend to the wireless operation.
Verizon said it trained thousands of nonunion employees over the past year to ensure no disruption in services.
“There's no way that these 10,000 people ... can make up for 40,000 people who have decades of experience (in highly technical jobs),” CWA representative Bob Master said.
Verizon has 4,600 union employees in Pennsylvania, said company spokesman Ray McConville. Roughly 600 of them picketed outside the Verizon office on Seventh Avenue, Downtown, during the morning rush hour, said Tom Crawford, regional vice president for CWA Local 13,000.
Crawford said they are not seeking rich benefits or pay, but rather job security.
“We hope to maintain what we have,” he said.
Clare Cottrill, 50, of Canonsburg was among the employees on strike. She has spent 30 years at the company and said her brother was laid off last June, one of 44 local service technicians who lost their jobs in a round of staff cuts. He is now working for a contractor installing fiber optic lines for the city.
“But it's not the same pay he was getting here,” Cottrill said.
Technician Kelley Crider, 36, of Bethel Park said it has been a stressful 10 months during the union negotiations.
“Tensions have been high because you never know if it's going to work out,” she said.
Verizon has been scaling back its Fios TV and Internet service and stopped expanding its landline phone network.
In recent years, Verizon, the No. 1 U.S. wireless company, has shifted focus to the bread-and-butter wireless business and new efforts in mobile video and advertising.
To that end, Verizon bought AOL for $4.4 billion last year, betting that a push into mobile video and targeted advertising can help it find new growth avenues.
Striking workers got a boost as Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders joined them at a Brooklyn rally ahead of the New York primary next week. Front-runner Hillary Clinton, who faces Sanders in the primary April 19, also voiced support for the strikers and urged Verizon to go back to the bargaining table.
Sanders spoke to a crowd of cheering Verizon workers at the midday rally. “This is just another major American corporation trying to destroy the lives of working Americans,” he said.
In urging a resumption of talks, Clinton said in a statement, “We rely on these men and women as part of the communications infrastructure that keeps businesses and our economy moving.”
Verizon didn't appear to be swayed.
“Big companies are an easy target for candidates looking for convenient villains for the economic distress felt by many of our citizens,” Verizon Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam said in a blog post. “Contrary to Senator Sanders' contention, our proposals do not call for mass layoffs or shipping jobs overseas.”
Hundreds of workers protested outside Verizon stores along the East Coast. In New York, strikers chanted “We're disgusted, union busted” and held placards reading “Against Verizon's corporate greed.”
Verizon and the unions have been talking since June about the company's plans to cut health care and pension-related benefits over a three-year period.
The workers have been without a contract since an agreement expired in August. Issues include health care, off-shoring call center jobs, temporary job relocations and pensions.
The last contract negotiations in 2011 also led to a strike. A new deal was reached after two weeks.
On Tuesday, Verizon said it was approached by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. In the last round, the FMCS mediated their contract dispute.
The question of federal mediation is “a diversionary tactic,” CWA's Master said, adding it has not contacted the FMCS.
“We don't want to go to Washington. ... What is needed is for the company to sit down and address our concerns.”
Tribune-Review staff writer Chris Fleisher and Reuters contributed.
