Strike possible Aug. 2 at Verizon
Union workers at Verizon have authorized a strike if talks fail to reach an agreement with the phone company by Aug. 2, when the current contract expires.
The Communications Workers of America approved the strike authorization by a 91 percent vote, the union said Monday.
Another phone-workers union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, previously authorized a strike if talks fail, on July 11.
The CWA and the IBEW are in talks with Verizon to replace their current five-year contracts. A total of 65,000 union workers from Virginia to Maine are covered by contracts that expire Aug. 2.
In Western New York, the two unions represent nearly 2,800 workers who install lines, maintain equipment and answer customer service calls at Verizon.
Verizon said that contingency plans are in place to continue phone service in the event of a strike, and called the authorization votes a routine action.
“In every negotiation there’s ever been, I think there’s a strike authorization,” spokesman John Bonamo said.
As the state’s dominant telephone carrier, Verizon land lines provide phone service to most homes in the Buffalo region. Verizon Wireless, a related company, is not involved in the union talks.
The contract negotiations began in May with Verizon making a presentation on the rising cost of health care benefits, according to a union account.
The CWA is seeking a guarantee that work performed on Verizon’s new fiber-optic network will continue to be done by union members, said James Wagner, president of CWA Local 1122 in Buffalo. The company’s “FIOS” fiber-optic system is gradually replacing copper phone wires.
The talks seem to be on track to conclude by Aug. 2, he said.
“All the indications are that we’re going to get this deal done,” Wagner said. The shift in technology makes job security a higher priority than pay raises, as workers typically earn $25 an hour and some top craft employees make more than $30 an hour.
Bonamo said the company wouldn’t comment on specifics about the talks. Union workers already perform work on the fiber- optic system, he said, and the new technology is generating jobs. The company’s Fiber Solutions Center in Syracuse has 400 workers and expects to add 335 more over the next few years.
Verizon’s fiber service is poised to begin selling TV channels similar to cable service in parts of Western New York, meaning additional installation work. Wagner said he expects the company to complete its video hub in Buffalo around Labor Day, allowing TV transmissions to begin. Bonamo said that the company continues to target this fall as the launch for video service in the region.
At the expiration of the last contract in 2003, the phone unions worked without a contract for five weeks until talks wound up. The resulting deal included job protections and a 2 percent annual wage increase.
