Strikes Threatened at Verizon,
Qwest Contract Also in Negotiations

Posted on July 23, 2008

Thousands of Verizon employees on the East Coast are threatening to go on strike if the carrier does not negotiate favorable health care and job security provisions in new union contracts.
 
Chad Parnis, CEO of West Chester, Pa.-based telecom consulting firm 4TelecomHelp Inc., is telling his enterprise telecom manager clients to submit any orders for new circuits in that region now, just in case. Otherwise these orders could end up backlogged as a reduced workforce prioritizes trouble tickets ahead of new installs.
 
The clock is ticking down to midnight on Aug. 2, when the Communications Workers of America’s (CWA) contract in the “Verizon East” territory expires. This region encompasses the former Bell Atlantic and NYNEX coverage areas (not including those recently purchased by FairPoint Communications) and stretches down the eastern seaboard from New Hampshire to Virginia, explains CWA spokeswoman Candice Johnson.
 
More than 50,000 Verizon technicians and customer service representatives are covered by the new contract now under negotiation, Johnson tells Voice Report.
 
Picketing Practice Sets Stage for Strike
 
As many as 91% of CWA’s Verizon-employed members voted to authorize a strike. The vote doesn’t guarantee a strike, but it’s the first step in the process, Johnson says.
 
CWA is staging a rally in New York City on July 26 to showcase workers’ support for a “fair contract,” Johnson says. And union members are encouraged to practice picketing on Thursdays.
 
“It is clear that Verizon is not going to move until they feel the [power] of our members’ mobilization,” says an official bargaining update posted on the “Unity @ Verizon” section of the CWA’s Web site. “We must be heard in the workplace. They must understand that it’s our members that make Verizon successful. We are not accepting less, we will not agree to concessions. We are united, committed and Union.”
 
CWA is negotiating with Verizon in tandem with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). The contract covering the 15,000 IBEW members employed by Verizon in the eastern region also will expire at midnight Aug. 2.
 
In the meantime, Verizon is training accountants to pull cable, Parnis reports. Verizon did not respond to requests for comment for this article.
 
Verizon customers aren’t the only ones who could be impacted by union/carrier negotiations. CWA covers 20,000 Qwest-employed workers. Their contract expires Aug. 16.

Whether the unions strike depends on how close the parties are to an agreement by the deadline, says Peter Feuille, professor and former director of the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. If they're close to consensus, a strike often can be avoided.

But if telco workers do strike, it's likely to be a prolonged struggle. Most customers would still get phone service and the carriers would still get most of their revenue as normal during a work stoppage, because phone networks are so highly automated. So a union would have to strike for a long time to cause enough pain to force a carrier to bend at the bargaining table, says Feuille, who is not involved in the negotiations.