Verizon, unions keep talking, put off strike

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/08/verizon_unions_keep_talking_put_off_strike



Workers for Verizon raise their arms in a show of unity, as IBEW 2222 Union official Paul Feeney addresses them with less than an hour to go before the strike deadline at midnight, Saturday, August 1, 2015, at the Verizon building at Bowdoin Square in downtown Boston.

Verizon, unions keep talking, put off strike
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Brian Dowling

~snip~

The contract covers members of the IBEW and the Communication Workers of America in nine states — including 5,000 in Massachusetts — who work for Verizon’s wireline business, which provides fixed-line phone services and FiOS Internet service. The workers include service representatives, operators, technicians, field techs, lineman and clerical workers.

The contract expired at midnight last night, but the unions said they would continue negotiations on an updated proposal they sent to Verizon on Friday that they say would offer the company health care and retiree cost savings.

At issue in the contract talks are job security, health care costs and the company’s plan to stop offering and contributing to pensions going forward, the unions say.

Verizon, in a statement Friday, called the union’s proposals “unrealistic and out-of-touch in today’s marketplace.”

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Having worked at New England Telephone/NYNEX/Bell Atlantic/Bell Atlantic/Verizon for 21 years, I have seen this dance many times.

NYNEX/Bell Atlantic/Bell Atlantic/Verizon has been beating up on the CWA and IBEW on EVERY contract negotiation.