NEW YORK — Wednesday at 6 a.m., nearly 40,000 Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Virginia began a strike after their unions failed to reach a labor agreement with the telecom giant.
The striking employees work a variety of jobs in Verizon's call centers, on its maintenance staff and as customer service installation technicians, making chances good that you could be affected if you have Verizon service.
►Landlines, high-speed Internet and Fios television service — Expect to wait longer than usual for service, repairs and hold times with customer service as the striking employees who typically service the landline network, fiber network and copper line networks halt work.
►Verizon wireless services — Wireless service will be mostly unaffected. However, there are 100 wireless technicians and 100 retail store employees in the city on strike as well. Also, picket lines have formed in front of Verizon stores across the city.
Breaking: 1st time in history, Wireless Retail workers ON STRIKE in Brklyn @CWADistrict1 @VzwRising #StandUp2Vz pic.twitter.com/UwXr9Q2ZUd
— Tim Dubnau (@TimDubnau) April 13, 2016
Verizon's workers have been without a contract since August 2015. They have criticized Verizon for outsourcing jobs, freezing pensions and slashing benefits for workers injured on the job, among other grievances.
Verizon has said it has been preparing for the strike for months and have hired or reassigned thousands of non-union employees to fill the jobs of those on strike.
Rich Young, a spokesman for Verizon, said he could not give a specific number for how many people were hired or reassigned to fill in for the striking workers, but said he's sure it's enough.
“We feel we’re prepared,” Young told DNAinfo.
However, Bob Master, a spokesperson for CWA, one of the unions representing the workers, said there is no way Verizon will be able to pick up the slack. In New York City, Master said there are between 7,000-8,000 service workers on strike and 1,000 call-center workers. He said the replacement workers could not fill in for the striking workers with the same level of understanding as union workers.
"You’re saying to the public that a guy who’s never done the job, who’s only been trained for six months can do the job the same way as a guy who’s been on the job for 25 years?" Master said.
Even at full capacity, Master said that Verizon has trouble keeping up with the workload. He pointed to a 2009 request by the New York State Public Service Commission that requested Verizon come up with a plan to better serve its customers who typically had to wait longer than the service-standard mandated 24-48 hours for repairs or service.
"They’re two years behind fully staffed. They don’t have enough people on staff to do the job," Master said. "How will this get better?"
