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40,000 Verizon workers walk off job over contract dispute

Tens of thousands of Verizon workers have walked off their over the US tech giant's unfair contract terms.

Tens of thousands of Verizon Communications Inc workers have unanimously walked off their jobs, staging one of the largest US strikes in recent years.

The strike that took place on Wednesday affected the telecom giant’s various internet, telephone and TV services across several US East Coast states such as New York, Massachusetts and Virginia.

The workers, mostly from the company’s wireline services, began their strike early in the morning gathering in midtown Manhattan in New York and 20 more locations in other states.

"We're striking for a fair contract," David Doran, a field technician for Verizon told NBC. "The company wants to outsource our work to other countries. We believe there's enough work here that can be done by the people in the union now."

Jointly representing some 40,000 employees, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers were the two unions that called for the strikes.

The strike was sparked after talks between unions and Verizon over the company's plans to cut healthcare and pension-related benefits over a three-year period hit an impasse.

The previous agreement expired in August and thousands of workers have been without a contract ever since.

In reaction, Verizon slammed the move and said it had trained thousands of non-union employees over the past year to ensure no disruption in services.

“It’s regrettable that union leaders have called a strike, a move that hurts all of our employees,” Marc Reed, Verizon’s chief administrative officer, said in a Wednesday statement.

The last contract negotiations in 2011 led to a strike and subsequently, a new contract was reached after two weeks. That strike involved 45,000 people.

Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) have approached the tech company to resolve the issue, Verizon said Tuesday.

“The question of federal mediation is a distraction to the real problem: Verizon's corporate greed," the unions said in a statement, adding they have yet to contact the FMCS.

US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who is competing against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to win the party’s nomination, has also backed the strike by Verizon workers.

Despite posting record profits in wireless business, Verizon has been losing its wireline customers and to help make up for the losses, it continues to offload some of its wireline assets and workers to countries like Mexico, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic. The company says it saved $300 million in employee costs in 2015.

This is while, Verizon’s wireline business still managed to post an $8.9 billion operating profit last year, slightly down from 2014.


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