Verizon has struck a provisional work agreement with unions representing nearly 40,000 employees who walked off the job in mid-April, according to the Department of Labor, taking a step toward ending a weeks-long strike that company execs said could ultimately affect second-quarter earnings.
"I have observed firsthand the parties’ good faith commitment to narrowing differences and forging an agreement that helps workers and the company," Perez said in a statement. "The parties have a shared interest in the success of Verizon and its dedicated workforce."
Exact details have not been disclosed, but Friday's tentative agreement between Verizon and the unions establishes for the first time a contract covering employees who work in Verizon’s wireless retail stores. The unprecedented contract covers roughly 100 workers across six stores in Brooklyn and one store in Everett, Mass., according to Communications Workers of America, one of the unions representing the employees.
"The agreement in principle at Verizon is a victory for working families across the country and an affirmation of the power of working people,” CWA President Chris Shelton said. “This proves that when we stand together we can raise up working families, improve our communities and protect the American middle class.”
"We look forward to having all of our employees soon back at work in their regular positions and doing what they do best – serving our customers," Verizon said in a statement.
The walk-off is considered one of the largest in company history. Workers objected to the telecom giant's attempts to relocate them, sometimes for months at a time, across the country and away from their families. They also said that Verizon was trying to ship call-center jobs overseas to foreign contractors and roll back worker benefits. The company had argued that in an era of technological change, it needed the flexibility to redeploy its workers to serve the areas of greatest need. More broadly, Verizon has been working to emphasize the wireless portion of its business in recent years, selling off many of its traditional landline assets.
To weather the strike, Verizon drafted thousands of workers from its non-unionized workforce, including management executives, to service homes and take customer calls. But although advances in customer-service technology allowed Verizon to automate many routine customer interactions, helping the company ride out the strike, it still wasn't enough to prevent some disruptions from occurring.
In some cases, Verizon was forced to postpone installations of new FiOS Internet service by a matter of weeks. The company sent affected customers a temporary LTE hotspot they could use to get online. In the Washington metropolitan area, Verizon brought in workers from as far away as Connecticut to meet the labor shortfall.
Other customers faced longer hold times for customer support. Peter Morency, a Verizon customer based in Boston, said he was frustrated when he called Verizon only to be told to wait for as long as three hours.
Verizon executives have admitted that the strike has affected some consumers, particularly those who cannot afford to wait for service.
"We’re doing a lot of installations but we’re not doing the same volume as we were before," chief executive Lowell McAdam said at an investors conference this week, as picketing workers rallied outside.
Employees protested outside the company's stores, warehouses and call centers throughout the six-week strike, occasionally turning customers away from retail outlets. The issue briefly took on political prominence as Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both sought to align themselves with union workers.
With the strike coming to a close, customers and workers may soon see conditions return to normal. But as technology threatens to change the industry ever more quickly, it's likely that Friday's provisional agreement may merely reset the clock.
