Verizon launches 'readiness plan' as unionized workers go on strike

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is assuring its customers that services will not suffer in the face a strike by unions representing its employees.

Roughly 40,000 employees nationwide went on strike Wednesday morning following the failure to reach a contract agreement after 10 months of negotiations with Verizon, which services millions of residents and businesses in the region.

The company has trained thousands of non-union workers to cover the same jobs as those handled by its workforce. The telecom giant said it will reassign employees from across the country and across the business in order to ensure its customers can count on their television, phone and Internet services, should its unionized employees stop coming to work.

Verizon has been preparing for a possible strike since last spring, with network training sessions at a Northern Virginia facility that were “created especially for this potential event,” said Bob Mudge, president of Verizon’s wireline network operations, in a statement Tuesday.

The corporation has this contingency plan for as long as a strike lasts, with a “fully activated” strike readiness team, the company said. It has also established a webpage to keep its customers informed of updates pertaining to a strike and contract negotiations.

The strike impacts about 39,000 Verizon workers along the East Coast, including those in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Virginia and Rhode Island. The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers both count Verizon employees as members.

These employees support Verizon’s wireline business, which includes FiOS and copper networks, according to company spokesman Rich Young.

The unions argue Verizon wants to diminish job security protections, offload jobs to other parts of the country and overseas, and contract out more work. They also contend the changes would hurt the economy and families by taking away area jobs and requiring technicians to relocate or work away from home for long periods.

The strike is a “last resort,” said CWA President Chris Shelton on a media call Monday. The workers wants better health care and improved pensions that Verizon wants to freeze after 30 years.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service asked Verizon if it would be willing to mediate should the unions extend the strike deadline, to which Verizon said it would be willing to participate under similar terms to those in their 2012 mediation.

Workers in Verizon facilities across the East Coast began negotiations in June 2015, two months before their contracts expired. They have since been working without contracts.

In the last negotiation that began in 2011, Verizon’s planned cutbacks led to a two-week strike and more than a year without contracts for the workers before they reached an agreement with the company.

Verizon says the current negotiations would preserve jobs “while also making critical changes needed to legacy contracts,” according to the company. The wireline business these employees support brought in about 29 percent of its revenue but less than 7 percent of its operating income. Nearly all of the 36,000 employees these contracts cover have wage and benefit packages that average more than $130,000 a year, the company said.

Verizon has 177,700 employees in 2,700 cities and 150 countries around the world, according to the company. Verizon ranks No. 15 on Fortune’s list of 500 top companies for 2015, and No. 465 on Forbes rankings of America’s 500 best employers for 2015.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal