Verizon strike brings frustration; New phone service on hold

Posted 8/21/12

HONESDALE, PA — Amanda Reed has been playing phone tag with Verizon for more than a month. Reed, who works at The River Reporter, has been trying to get new phone service because her family …

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Verizon strike brings frustration; New phone service on hold

Posted

HONESDALE, PA — Amanda Reed has been playing phone tag with Verizon for more than a month. Reed, who works at The River Reporter, has been trying to get new phone service because her family recently moved to a new home.

She called Verizon on May 2, and was given an appointment for May 20, an unusually long wait to begin with. May 20 came and went, but no one from Verizon showed up. Reed couldn’t call Verizon because she has no landline or cell service at her new home.

She sent an email to the company, which said, in part, “I understand that with the strike it is extremely difficult to get service installed. However, I would think a company as large as Verizon would be able to offer some sort of help with getting something so that my family has some sort of service in case of emergency. Surely having to drive five to 10 miles to use a phone isn’t something that a company of this magnitude would find acceptable.”

The company did set up a new appointment for Reed for June 11, but she was told that’s only good if the strike is settled by then. It’s a scene that’s playing out on the East Coast from Virginia to Maine since some 39,000 members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Communications Workers of America began a strike against the company on April 13.

Verizon executives say they expect the strike to end relatively soon, and the Obama administration has become involved in the negotiations through a federal mediator. While this round of negotiations continues, both sides have agreed they will not make comments about the strike to media outlets.

The 39,000 workers who walked out are protesting Verizon’s plans to move jobs to other countries, and want to keep the healthcare benefits and pensions they currently have.

The strikers have not had a contract since August 2015, and representatives of the two unions have said in the past there was no movement in the negotiations, and therefore they had no alternative but to walk out. The unions said Verizon earned $39 billion in profits over the past three years.

In a post on the Verizon website dating to April, the company said it has “trained non-union employees [who] will cover for striking workers and provide customers with the support and assistance they need and expect.”

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