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36,000-40,000 staff walk out citing grievances over offshoring jobs, call-centre closures, onerous transfers.
Verizon has said it is willing to negotiate with disgruntled staff based in the northeast of the U.S. who this week went on strike after months of fruitless contract negotiation.
"We’re ready to sit down when they’re ready to sit down," Verizon spokesman Kevin King told Total Telecom on Wednesday. "They’re the folks who decided to go on strike."
Employees represented by the Communication Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) walked out on Wednesday citing a number of grievances.
The CWA said nearly 40,000 workers have gone on strike; Verizon put the figure at approximately 36,000. Verizon’s most recent annual report said it employed around 177,700 staff as of 31 December 2015.
The staff involved are predominantly engineers who install and maintain Verizon’s FiOS fixed broadband service, and related customer service staff. Their employment contract expired on 1 August 2015, and despite months of negotiation, both sides have been unable to reach a new agreement.
To cope with the strike, King said Verizon has brought in "thousands" of non-union workers to continue providing service to customers.
In a statement, the CWA said its members and those of the IBEW are opposed to call centre closures and customer services jobs being transferred overseas.
They are also against the increasing number of jobs being outsourced by Verizon to low-wage, non-union contractors, and taken umbrage at Verizon’s alleged refusal to negotiate a new contract with the Verizon Wireless retail employees who formed the Verizon Workers Rising union in 2014.
In addition, the unions accuse Verizon of assigning jobs to wireline employees that sees them having to live away from home for up to two months at a time.
"Our families and our customers deserve more from Verizon," said Isaac Collazo, a Verizon technician and CWA member from New York, who has worked for the telco for 19 years.
"Through our hard work, Verizon is making record profits while our families are left with threats to our jobs and our customers aren’t getting the service they need," he said. "Striking is a hardship for our families, but we need to remind Verizon executives that the people who build their profits are a critical reason for the company’s success."
King said Verizon started negotiating a new deal "months in advance" of the previous contract’s expiration, and said the terms on offer include a 6.5% salary increase over the new contract’s lifetime, as well as pledges regarding health insurance and pension and benefit contributions.
He said Verizon has also accepted involvement from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services (FMCS).
"We’re ready to sit down," King reiterated.
