Jun 21, 2016
Members of the two unions representing nearly 40,000 Verizon workers who staged a 45-day strike ratified a new four-year contract hammered out by union and company leaders after a federal Labor Department intervention.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America ratified the pact, which includes pay raises, bonuses and a halt to proposals to increase the use of foreign-based call center contractors to field customer service calls and the hiring of more than 1,000 new call center employees.
Local union leaders and members said during the strike that keeping American customer service call centers open, and preventing the increased the use of foreign-based contractors, was a central aim of the work stoppage.
"It was a tough strike, but this contract, which secures good jobs in our communities and preserve workers’ standard of living shows what can happen when we stand together," said Ed Mooney, vice president of CWA District 2-13, which includes several mid-Atlantic states.
Verizon officials also called the agreement a victory.
"The terms are good for our employees, good for our customers and good for our business," said Marc Reed, Verizon’s chief administrative officer. "The company’s key objectives for this round of bargaining were in the areas of health care, post-retirement costs and workforce flexibility. These agreements achieve all of those objectives."
Under the terms of the contract, which immediately went into effect, Verizon would not outsource additional call center jobs while increasing the number of customer service calls sent to the domestic call centers and leading to 1,300 new call center jobs.
The proposal also included raises of 3 percent in the first year, and 2.5 percent each year thereafter.
U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez met with the unions and Verizon officials last month to mediate the ongoing strike.
The employees' last contract expired on Aug. 1, meaning the new four-year contract would last until August 2019.
After negotiations bogged down, about 39,000 wireline and Verizon wireless store employees from Virginia to Massachusetts went on strike April 13. According to federal labor relations data, it was the biggest strike since the unions went on strike against Verizon in 2011.
Verizon last year had trained nonunion employees from other parts of the company, and some people from outside the company, to take over wireline repair and infrastructure work, which is done by the IBEW employees, in the event of a strike.
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