Verizon unions strike over outsourcing, health care

By Douglas Moser dmoser@eagletribune.com

4/14/16

Nearly 40,000 Verizon employees along the East Coast walked off the job Wednesday morning, hitting the picket line at 6 a.m. in a number of locations around the Merrimack Valley and North Shore after contract negotiations in New York failed to progress Tuesday afternoon.

Two unions representing the employees, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America, and Verizon are at an impasse over the status and future of domestic call centers and health care costs for retired employees, the company and union said.

They also clashed over a federal agency's proposal to mediate the dispute to avert a strike, with the union refusing because of potential limitations on the topics of discussion.

"We have not heard back from the company regarding any new dates, times or new discussions," said Craig Fields, the business manager for IBEW local 2321, based in North Andover. "There’s been nothing new."

The IBEW employees include about 800 on the North Shore and Merrimack Valley. Many are wire – both copper and fiber optic – splicers and other infrastructure maintenance employees, along with switch center technicians and some administrative, sales and service dispatch employees. 

Verizon officials called the strike unnecessary and blamed union leaders.

"Since last June, we’ve worked diligently to try and reach agreements that would be good for our employees, good for our customers and make the wireline business more successful now and in the future," Marc Reed, Verizon's chief administrative officer, said Wednesday. "Unfortunately, union leaders have their own agenda rooted in the past and are ignoring today’s digital realities. Calling a strike benefits no one, and brings us no closer to resolution."

The company said the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which helped the sides reach an agreement in 2012 after a bitter 13-day strike the prior year, offered to step in again.

Fields said he feared restrictions placed on the mediation would prevent them from dealing with their core issues.

"If we can’t discuss the issues at the table, the mediation won’t help," he said.

Many of the 40 or so employees walking the line at the Methuen garage on Pleasant Valley Street Wednesday morning also had participated in the 2011 strike, which ended when the unions and Verizon agreed to restart negotiations but before a contract was finished.

"It's tough not taking a paycheck," Kelly Noah, an Atkinson resident who has worked for Verizon for 26 years, said Wednesday.

Coworker Lance Thigpen, a Lawrence resident and splicer service technician with 25 years at Verizon, said the other members would help out if this year's strike drags on.

"If it goes longer than two weeks, we tend to help everyone out," he said.

Sherry Lister, a Salem, N.H., resident with 27 years at the company, said she still loved working for Verizon, but thought it was important to resist layoffs and outsourcing.

"You can't be sending jobs overseas because you want to make more money," she said. "You have to keep jobs in America."

A little more than a dozen people walked a picket line at the garage on Route 113 in Dracut Wednesday afternoon, but a union steward directed all questions to union business officials.

Another roughly dozen walked outside the switch facility on Hampshire Street in Lawrence.

Verizon over the last year trained nonunion employees – both from other parts of the company and with outside contractors – to take over in the event of a strike.

Some of the main sticking points include augmenting the role of outside contractors, including international companies, to field customer service calls, closing domestic call centers and laying off employees, imposing time limits on company pension contributions and increasing health care costs on retired employees.