Verizon Union Postpones Strike

Workers march and hold up placards outside of a Verizon office last Thursday in Lower Manhattan. (Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

NEW YORK—A strike against Verizon was averted early Sunday morning when unions representing workers at Verizon Communications, Inc. announced that the planned strike was to be delayed.

The Communication Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) announced that it would “stop the clock” and postpone the strike the two unions had been threatening. The union cited positive progress in negotiations as the reason for the delay.

The unions had a labor contract with Verizon that covered over 50,000 of the company’s 65,000 unionized workers. The contract was due to expire at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 3 but is currently active until a new deal can be reached.

On Sunday, just 20 minutes after the contract deadline, CWA issued a statement saying that progress was being made in negotiations with Verizon on major issues such as healthcare coverage for active and retired workers and strengthening job security in the contracts.

Minutes after the CWA announced the postponement, Verizon issued a statement saying that it would “continue to negotiate in good faith to achieve new contracts for our employees.”

Conflict stirred between Verizon and the union when Verizon requested that unionized workers contribute to health insurance premiums and that its retirees shoulder more cost of health insurance.

Despite the enthusiasm expressed by both sides the CWA said in a statement negotiations still had a long way to go before a deal can be reached.

“Significant additional bargaining still lies ahead before a settlement is possible, particularly in the areas of employment security and union jobs and recognition,” said the CWA in a statement.

Since July, the unions have staged large scale protests and picket lines outside of Verizon headquarters in lower Manhattan. A large scale walk out would come at a bad time for Verizon as it begins to offer New York City FiOS, a high speed fiber optical broad band service to compete with cable internet providers.

The CWA had previously held a strike against Verizon in 1989 that lasted for 17 weeks. In 2000, work was stopped for 18 days when workers walked out shortly after the company’s formation from the merger between Bell Atlantic and GTE.