Unions reject Verizon's latest offer

BY KATHLEEN LYNN

APRIL 29, 2016

After meeting with union negotiators Thursday, Verizon bumped up its proposed wage increase for 36,000 striking workers, from 6.5 percent over three years to 7.5 percent, calling the proposal its “last, best and final offer.”

But the unions representing the strikers, including 4,800 in New Jersey, rejected the proposal. The unions have not focused on wages as an issue, and one of them said Thursday the company’s offer did not address the more central concerns about preventing jobs from being outsourced overseas.

“Any working person welcomes a wage increase, but it doesn’t do them much good if they feel their job might disappear tomorrow,” said Bob Master, a spokesman for the Communications Workers of America, which, along with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, represents the strikers.

The employees, who went on strike April 13, work on Verizon’s landline phone service, which includes FIOS internet service, in nine states on the East Coast. Striking workers include call center workers and installation and repair technicians.

The unions said the company wants to increase workers’ health insurance costs, freeze certain pension benefits, outsource jobs and gain the right to relocate workers across state lines for up to two months, which the unions said could interfere with their family responsibilities.

Verizon says that while it is seeking to have employees contribute more to their health costs, its health benefits would remain competitive, and that it needs more flexibility in managing its workers.

Negotiators met in Philadelphia and Westchester County Thursday. Marc Reed, Verizon’s chief administrative officer, said of the company’s latest proposal: “A better offer would be hard to find.” The company said that in addition to the higher pay raises, the offer includes continued layoff protection for workers who have such protection now, as long as the company can get more flexibility in deploying the workers.

The CWA said it is “considering its next steps in the bargaining process.”

Employees on Verizon’s wireless side for the most part are not unionized and are not striking.