Here’s a Wall Street Journal piece about the strike.

Here’s a Wall Street Journal piece about the strike.

Verizon’s Wireline Unions Call for Strike as Deadline Passes

By GREG BENSINGER

Unions for Verizon Communications Inc. called on 45,000 workers to walk off the job early this morning after negotiators failed to reach an agreement on a new contract by a midnight deadline, marking the first strike at the telecommunications giant in 11 years.

Employees for Verizon’s wireline business represented by the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers will forgo pay while negotiators continue talks.

Earlier in the n

ight, IBEW official Edwin D. Hill said Verizon hadn’t budged much from its July 1 proposal and questioned whether “the company is serious about bargaining.”

Marc C. Reed, Verizon’s executive vice president of human resources, called the move “regrettable” in a statement.

“The unions were looking for us to take a number of things off the table” including changes to health care benefits, said Peter Thonis, a Verizon spokesman.

He said Verizon expected no changes to network quality during the strike, though customers may have longer than average wait times for service calls or installations. He declined to say how much a strike may cost Verizon but noted that both sides will continue talking.

Verizon had been seeking concessions from its unionized workers to help offset declining revenue in its division encompassing the traditional phone business and its FiOS Internet and television.

It marks the first strike at Verizon since about 86,000 workers took to the picket lines in 2000 for 18 days before agreeing to a tentative contract. In 2008 and 2003, the last times a labor contract was up for renegotiation, talks extended eight and 33 days, respectively, beyond their deadline, but there were no strikes.

Verizon has been training nonunion managers to handle customer service calls and network repairs and maintenance. The company will ask certain managers to work 12-hour days for 6 days a week to help meet network and customer demands during the strike, said Rich Young, another Verizon spokesman.

To address declining wireline revenue, Verizon had sought to tie pay increases more closely to job performance, make it easier to fire employees for cause and require workers to pay a health-plan premium.

Labor leaders, meanwhile, contend that the proposed cuts are meant to lessen the unions’ power, and they point out that the company remains profitable. Verizon reported $3 billion in profits in the first six months.

The company’s push for concessions follows rollbacks of union benefits in the airline, auto and municipal work forces.

Verizon’s wireline unit reported a 1.2% drop in revenue to $20.4 billion in this year’s first six months, while revenue at its wireless business, co-owned by Vodafone Group PLC, increased 10% for the same period.