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IBEW Local 827, Englewood garage (CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM photo)
Although on strike, Verizon workers said Sunday that they hadn’t reached an impasse in negotiations, an important distinction: Federal law prevents the company from unilaterally changing terms of a collectively bargained contract under those circumstances.
The 45,000 East Coast strikers from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C.– all from the wireline division — make up a fifth of Verizon’s workforce.
Many of them have descended on area Verizon facilities today in New Jersey, even in Bergen County, where blue laws keep most stores closed on Sunday. Many marched through the rain, some with umbrellas — just about all of them checking the cells while a Facebook quickly grew into the thousands.
A group also demonstrated outside the home of a Verizon Communication Inc. official in Mendham:
There’s genuine concern over how the walkout will affect landline operations. as well as installation of services like FiOS, its fiber-optic television and Internet lines. The photo, right, taken by a striker, shows a supervisor and a replacement worker at a pedestal in Passaic County.
The dispute does not affect Verizon’s wireless operations.
Verizon insists on more than 100 concessions on health care benefits and pension and work rules, which the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers say was more than reason enough to strike after their contracts expired at midnight.
“Even at the 11th hour, as contracts were set to expire, Verizon continued to seek to strip away 50 years of collective bargaining gains for middle class workers and their families,” the CWA said in a statement. The union accused the company of responding with “the same old tune about how their costs are too high in a declining landline business.
“The Union committee once again pointed out that it is in our best interests to see this company succeed, but we must be able to share in that success. The talks have recessed for now, subject to call from either party.” (For more, go to: CWAUnion.org)
Verizon said it has “activated a contingency plan to ensure customers experience limited disruption in service during this time.” The company – which says its position is dictated by more customers moving to full-time cellphone lines – didn’t go into detail, however.
Verizon wants unionized workers to begin contributing the same to health-care premiums as their non-union counterparts and is both freezing and reconfiguring pensions. It also wants to cut the unlimited cap on sick days to five.
“You can apply for unemployment insurance benefits,” Paul Levinson, the general counsel of Local 827, told the strikers. “However, be aware that if it is ultimately determined that the strike prevented the company from providing its services at 80% or more of its normal levels, you will not be entitled to it and you may be obligated to pay it back if you had already received it.”
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