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U.S. Labor Department brokers agreement to get both sides back to the bargaining table.
Verizon will restart talks with striking workers on Tuesday after the U.S. Department of Labor brokered an agreement between the two sides.
On Sunday, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez met with Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, and the heads of the two unions that represent the tens of thousands of employees who have been on strike for more than a month: Communication Workers of America (CWA) president Chris Shelton, and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) president Lonnie Stephenson.
According to a Labor Department statement published by the CWA, the parties have agreed to work towards settling their differences.
"The best way to resolve this labour dispute is at the bargaining table, and I am heartened by the parties’ mutual commitment to get back to immediate discussions and work toward a new contract," said Perez, in a statement on Sunday.
Between 36,000 and 40,000 Verizon employees walked out in April following months of fruitless contract negotiation. Talks between Verizon and the unions since the strike began have stalled, with neither side seemingly willing to compromise.
Those involved are mainly engineers who install and maintain Verizon’s FiOS fixed broadband service, and related customer service staff.
Their grievances include being assigned jobs that force them to live away from home for up to two months, call centre closures, and the outsourcing of jobs to non-union contractors and companies overseas, in particular the Philippines.
McAdam has played down the extent to which Verizon directs customer service enquiries to Filipino call centres; however, CWA representatives who travelled to the country revealed late last week that Filipino staff are being paid US$1.78 per hour to take "every imaginable type of customer service call" related to Verizon’s fixed-line division.
The CWA claimed that its delegation was also intimidated by Verizon’s security team, as well as armed police while they were in the Philippines.
Nevertheless, the Labor Department said on Sunday that progress has been made, with McAdam, Shelton and Stephenson having had "an open, frank and constructive dialogue about finding a comprehensive way forward to resolve disputed issues and get people back to work.
"The parties agreed to return to the bargaining table on Tuesday to continue their discussion."
