Verizon strike ends
6/10/2016, 5:46 a.m.
Free Press wire reports
NEW YORK
Nearly 40,000 striking Verizon employees in Virginia and eight other states returned to work June 1 after reaching a tentative contract agreement.
The deal includes the company’s agreement to provide 1,400 new call-center jobs in the United States and to provide nearly 11 percent in raises over four years.
The company won concessions that will allow it to make health care plan changes to save money, the company and its unions announced.
The pact ends one of the largest strikes in the United States in recent years and the first since 2011 against Verizon.
In addition to the pay raises and call-center jobs, the tentative agreement includes $1,250 in signing bonuses and health care reimbursements for new workers, a 25 percent increase in the number of unionized crews maintaining Verizon’s utility poles in New York state, and three 1 percent increases in pensions.
It also includes the first contract for wireless retail store workers.
