Verizon Strikers Return to Work

said the proposed four-year contract provides 10.9 percent in raises over four years with compounded interest, including 3 percent upon ratification and 2.5 percent on each anniversary of the contract. In the mid-Atlantic, it includes a $1,250 signing bonus; in the Northeast, a $1,000 signing bonus plus a $250 healthcare reimbursement account, it said. The deal gives workers a minimum $700 in profit sharing in each of the next four years, and rather than reduce pensions as the telco proposed, the agreement provides three 1 percent increases to pensions, it said. About 70 Verizon Wireless retail employees in Brooklyn, New York, and Everett, Massachusetts, will get their first-ever contract, the CWA said. All call centers that had been threatened with closure in the mid-Atlantic region will remain open; three of five threatened call centers in upstate New York will remain open, with the six workers affected in the other centers to be offered new Verizon jobs locally, it said. Verizon will add 1,300 call center jobs, including 850 in the mid-Atlantic and 450 in the Northeast, CWA said. Verizon agreed to reverse several major contracting initiatives, resulting in a 25 percent increase in the number of unionized crews doing pole work in New York state, CWA said. The proposed contract also preserves existing language on job security, transfer and seniority protections for retirement incentives, the union said. Verizon withdrew proposals on forced interstate transfers, CWA said. Verizon agreed to end a performance supervisory program in New York City that workers didn’t like, and the parties will work with an outside consultant to develop a nonpunitive program, the union said. The company agreed to withdraw proposed cuts in accident and disability benefits, CWA said. Verizon said the company will save money and avoid additional costs through healthcare plan design changes, adopting Medicare Advantage plans for retirees, maintaining limits on post-retirement healthcare costs, and freezing the mortality table for lump sum pensions using the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade rate. The agreement lets Verizon provide special buyout incentives to employees, the company said. Verizon is also likely to save money by the act of ending the strike, analysts have said, since the company had to deploy thousands to fill in for the union workers, including contractors and its own managers. The unions will submit the agreement to members for a ratification vote; if approved, the contract will run through Aug. 3, 2019, Verizon said. The strike hurt Verizon financially and its end is welcome, said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche. “While there likely will be some impact on Q2 financials related to the strike … the savings that should result from this Strike outweigh the near term distractions,” she wrote investors Tuesday.