Verizon Gets Upper Hand With Labor Unions in Wireless Shift
Verizon Communications Inc., deadlocked in labor talks over pension benefits and health care that caused a strike in 2011, has gained bargaining power this time around after shedding operations that employ older unionized workers.
The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, representing about 39,000 Verizon employees, are in the weakest position they've ever been. That's because the phone giant has refocused on wireless, where it sees more growth and employees are nonunionized and typically younger.
The labor dispute is the first since Verizon took full control of Verizon Wireless and agreed to buy AOL, two deals worth almost $135 billion that point toward a wireless-centric future. Today's Verizon makes just 30 percent of revenue from its landlines, and Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam has begun a review of legacy telephone assets that could result in the sale of additional union-heavy operations.
“Verizon is not the same company it was when the idea of employment contracts were center stage,” said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications analyst based in Atlanta.
The parties, which had been negotiating since June 22, remained divided on issues that include retirement security, health care and efforts to outsource call-center jobs when contracts with the CWA and the IBEW expired Aug. 1.
The CWA also says Verizon has reneged on its commitments to build out FiOS in certain areas while ignoring necessary maintenance on the company's existing copper network.
Leaders of the two unions, Verizon's largest, said Sunday they decided not to strike after the deadline passed, even though “the two sides remain far apart.”
Both unions and the company said Tuesday that the talks have stalled, and neither gave indication as to when they may resume. Employees in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions have continued to work without a contract, but CWA members approved a strike authorization in July so CWA President Chris Shelton can call a walkout at any time.
The unionized workforce has more than halved since the 2000 strike -- from more than 85,000 to 45,000 in 2011 and 39,000 today.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-05/verizon-deadlocked-with-unions-gets-upper-hand-in-wireless-shift
Verizon Gets Upper Hand With Labor Unions in Wireless Shift
Verizon Communications Inc., deadlocked in labor talks over pension benefits and health care that caused a strike in 2011, has gained bargaining power this time around after shedding operations that employ older unionized workers.
The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, representing about 39,000 Verizon employees, are in the weakest position they've ever been. That's because the phone giant has refocused on wireless, where it sees more growth and employees are nonunionized and typically younger.
The labor dispute is the first since Verizon took full control of Verizon Wireless and agreed to buy AOL, two deals worth almost $135 billion that point toward a wireless-centric future. Today's Verizon makes just 30 percent of revenue from its landlines, and Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam has begun a review of legacy telephone assets that could result in the sale of additional union-heavy operations.
“Verizon is not the same company it was when the idea of employment contracts were center stage,” said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications analyst based in Atlanta.
The parties, which had been negotiating since June 22, remained divided on issues that include retirement security, health care and efforts to outsource call-center jobs when contracts with the CWA and the IBEW expired Aug. 1.
The CWA also says Verizon has reneged on its commitments to build out FiOS in certain areas while ignoring necessary maintenance on the company's existing copper network.
Leaders of the two unions, Verizon's largest, said Sunday they decided not to strike after the deadline passed, even though “the two sides remain far apart.”
Both unions and the company said Tuesday that the talks have stalled, and neither gave indication as to when they may resume. Employees in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions have continued to work without a contract, but CWA members approved a strike authorization in July so CWA President Chris Shelton can call a walkout at any time.
The unionized workforce has more than halved since the 2000 strike -- from more than 85,000 to 45,000 in 2011 and 39,000 today.