NEW YORK—Verizon Communications Inc. workers in nine states have
voted to go on strike if necessary over a dispute about a new
contract, a union official said at a rally on Saturday.
"Our members are clear and they are determined," said Dennis
Trainor, an official with the Communications Workers of America
union. "They reject management's harsh concessionary demands."
At the rally in New York, the CWA said that 86% of Verizon
workers who voted in a recent poll backed strike action if
required. A contract that covers 39,000 workers represented by the
CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers expires
at midnight on Aug. 1.
The contract covers employees in nine states from Massachusetts
to Virginia who work for Verizon's wireline business, which
provides fixed-line phone services and FiOS Internet service. It
also affects wireline workers in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland,
New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, as well as in
Washington, D.C.
The unions say the telecom giant is asking that workers sharply
increase their health-care contributions and make concession on
pensions.
Verizon spokesman Rich Young said the company had made the
unions "a solid proposal that recognizes the changing
communications landscape and offers a path toward success."
Many of the aspects of the contracts that were set "decades ago"
were no longer relevant in an industry that was facing increased
pressure and structural change, Mr. Young said. The company has
been training nonunion employees to take on additional roles to
ensure that there was no disruption to customers in the event of a
strike, he said.
Copyright 2015 Associated Press
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