NORTHAMPTON – About 40 striking Verizon workers began picketing outside the company’s Masonic Street property Wednesday as part of a coordinated protest across the East Coast.
The group in Northampton joined hundreds of other Verizon workers at locations in western Massachusetts, including Pittsfield, Springfield, North Adams and Westfield who are protesting stalled contract talks and labor terms put forth by the telecommunications giant.
“This is not an easy task we’re asking people to do, but if we want to have a future here in the company, we’re going to have to sacrifice in the short term,” John Rowley Sr., business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2324, said Wednesday.
The local union represents 341 Verizon workers in western Massachusetts, all of whom went on strike Wednesday, Rowley said. He said the strikes are expected to continue for an undetermined time and occur at locations that put the most economic pressure on the company. The strikers are being joined by other Verizon workers represented by the Communications Workers of America Local 1400.
“Long gone are the days of standing in front of a central office or a garage,” Rowley said. “We’re going to be fanning out to different locations. We’re going to be on strike today and every day until the company comes back to the table with reasonable proposals.”
The wokers picketing in Northampton declined to comment to the news media under directives from union officials. Many were wearing signs that read “Fighting Corporate Greed at Verizon Wireless,” outside Verizon’s office that houses clerical staff and technicians.
About 39,000 Verizon landline and cable workers on the East Coast walked off the job Wednesday morning after trying to negotiate a new contract that expired about eight months ago. The areas of contention involve wages, job security, employee health care costs and retirement benefits, among others.
The workers represent installers, customer service employees, repairmen and other service workers in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., for Verizon’s wireline business, which provides fixed-line phone services and FiOS Internet service.
Verizon spokesman Rich Young said the company was disappointed that union leadership has called a strike. He said it has trained thousands of non-union workers to fill in for striking workers and “we will be there for our customers.”
The workers’ latest contract expired in August and so far, the unions and management say negotiations have been unsuccessful.
The unions have said Verizon wants to freeze pensions, make layoffs easier and rely more on contract workers. The telecom giant has said there are health care issues that need to be addressed for retirees and current workers because medical costs have grown and the company also wants “greater flexibility” to manage its workers.
Verizon also is pushing to eliminate a rule that would prevent employees from working away from home for extended periods of time. In a television ad, the unions said the company was trying to “force employees to accept a contract sending their jobs to other parts of the country and even oversees.”
“We are trying to stem the tide of the jobs being sent overseas,” Rowley told the Gazette. “We believe they’re American jobs and American workers should be doing that.”
Verizon said Tuesday that it has worked for more than a year to prepare for the possibility of a strike and has trained thousands of non-union workers to fill in. Employees from other departments across the U.S. also will be sent to replace the striking workers, the company said. In August 2011, about 45,000 Verizon workers went on strike for about two weeks.
Material from the Associated Press was incorporated into this report.