Verizon talks fail; strike at hand

Last-ditch talks between Verizon and the unions representing 39,000 workers failed Tuesday night, setting up a strike to begin at 6 o'clock Wednesday morning.

Workers from New England to West Virginia, all employed by Verizon Communication Inc.'s landline division, which also handles fiber-optic cable installation, sales, and service, will go off the job.

Hundreds are expected to gather in Philadelphia outside Verizon's building at Ninth and Race Streets for a rally at 8 a.m. Wednesday, said union official James Gardler, president of Communications Workers of America Local 13000 in Philadelphia.

On Tuesday afternoon, Verizon said it had been contacted by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and agreed to accept resolution of issues by mediation, if the unions agreed to extend the strike deadline.

CWA spokeswoman Candice Johnson disputed that.

"Historically, federal mediators only get involved in collective bargaining situations with the agreement of both parties," she said in a statement. "CWA did not authorize anyone at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to approach Verizon about extending the strike date."

Represented by the CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the employees have been working without a contract since August.

"We don't have any comment," IBEW spokesman Mark Brueggenjohann said.

The strike comes as Verizon is shifting away from its legacy "wired" businesses - the part of the firm that brings telephone and Internet service into homes via copper and fiber, which Verizon markets as FiOS.

Most of the company's unionized employees work for the "wired" part of the business, which now drives 29 percent of Verizon's revenues, down from about 37 percent in 2011, when workers went on strike for 10 days, according to company regulatory filings for 2015. The contract was ultimately resolved after federal mediation in 2012.

About 2,100 employees represented by the CWA will be affected in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs, part of 5,900 CWA workers striking in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The IBEW represents 3,900 in New Jersey and about 100 in the Philadelphia area.

Verizon, with 2015 profits of $18.4 billion on $131.6 billion in revenues, employs 177,700. More than one in five workers is expected to be out on strike.

Cellphones aren't likely to be affected by the strike, although repairs or installation requests for Internet or landlines could be delayed. Verizon said it has been training nonunion workers to take over union functions.

"Let's make it clear - we are ready for a strike," Bob Mudge, president of Verizon's wire-line network operations, said in a statement.

In newspaper advertisements, Verizon says it is offering a 6.5 percent increase in wages on a compensation package averaging $130,000.

The advertisement also says the company's proposal will "make changes to legacy constraints in our contracts."

"Union leaders need to move out of the past and recognize that is no longer the Ma Bell era of princess phones and phone booths," the advertisement said.

Those legacy constraints are at the heart of the disagreement between the two sides.

Gardler said the company wants to have the right to move repair crews from their home base to any location from New England to Virginia for two months at a time, not allowed under the current contract.

That's because union crews are stretched thin as Verizon slows its investment in its "wired" business, not replacing workers and requiring those who remain to put in many hours of mandatory overtime weekly, union officials said.

The unions also want Verizon to agree to keep call centers open and not to shift work out of state or out of the country to the Philippines or Mexico.

"We don't want calls going to contractors," Gardler said. "If the customer base is in Pennsylvania, people in Pennsylvania should be handling those calls."

The antiunion National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is offering free legal help to union members who don't want to strike or who want to resign from their union.

Source: Philly.com