45,000 Verizon workers strike over contract

Tens of thousands of union workers at Verizon Communications Inc. from Massachusetts to Washington, DC, went on strike Sunday morning after failing to agree on a new labor contract with the telecommunications company.
Communications Workers of America said negotiations in Philadelphia and New York came to a standstill on Saturday night after Verizon over 100 continued to demand concessions from workers and unions refused to budge.
Mark C. Reed, Verizon executive vice president, human resources, called the result of union action "regrettable" for customers and employees.
"We will continue doing our part to reach a new contract that reflects the economic realities of today in our wireline business and serves the needs of all parties," he said in a statement.
The contract expired at midnight Saturday covers 45,000 workers, including 10,000 represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, who work as technical telephone and repair, customer service representatives, operators and more.
"Even when 11, as contracts expire, Verizon continued to try to strip 50 years of collective bargaining gains for middle-class workers and their families," CWA said in a statement Sunday.
Verizon, the largest mobile operator, has 196,000 workers, 135,000 are not unionized.
In the middle of the contract dispute are health care costs, pensions and work rules.
The CWA said that the award is not justified and hard, considering that Verizon is very profitable - the company's revenue rose 2.8 percent to $ 27.5 billion in the second quarter. Its growth was attributed mainly to its mobile phone business.
But Verizon said its fixed line business has been in decline for over a decade, and is calling for changes to the contract to strengthen the unity. The company said that union employees contribute nothing to their insurance premiums.
Verizon activated a contingency plan to ensure that customers experienced "temporary interruption in service" for the duration of the strike.
"Tens of thousands of Verizon managers and other staff have been trained to intervene and work tasks of emergency," said Verizon spokesman Rich Young.
A customer satisfaction survey released in May showed Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. ranked first among the four major wireless providers. The survey covered 8,000 households in the first quarter of this year.
Verizon added 1.26 million wireless subscribers under contract in the period April to June this year, a result that goes against the slowdown in new subscribers in the industry over the past two years. A year ago, Verizon just added 665,000 subscribers on contract.
Verizon closed the last quarter with 106.3 million devices connected to your wireless network, making it the largest operator in the country. No. 2 and the main rival of AT & T is trying to take a leap of Verizon in the size of the purchase No. 4 T-Mobile USA for $ 39 billion.