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End to Verizon strike brings pay raise, bonuses for employees

A tentative agreement between the company and two unions includes the addition of nearly 1,500 jobs and a promise of no outsourcing, as well as better pay and benefits.

By Stephen Feller

WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- Verizon employees striking since mid-April over conditions and the movement of call center jobs overseas will return to work this week after reaching an agreement with the company.

Unionized employees of Verizon will receive a $1,250 bonus and 3 percent raise, and the company will hire 1,300 new employees to staff call centers on the East Coast, as well as pay raises during the next four years, CNN reported.

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In addition to the bonus, immediate raise and a total 10.9 percent raise over the course of the contract, the new agreement allows modifications to employees' healthcare plans, while giving employees a better deal on pensions and temporary work assignments.

The new contract, between Verizon, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was negotiated after U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez got the parties back to the table two weeks ago.

The 40,000 employees still must vote to approve the contract, which union officials say will happen by mid-June, although employees will return to work this week.

"After more than six weeks on the picket line, Verizon workers won an excellent new contract that will protect good jobs and preserve our standard of living," Dennis Trainor, vice president of the CWA District One, said in a press release. "The members' unity and determination defeated company proposals to outsource and contract out work, and the new agreement will create 1,500 new union jobs up and down the East Coast. Together, we are turning the tide from cutbacks against working people to building a stronger labor movement and strengthening the power of working Americans."

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Verizon employees had been working for nearly 10 months without a contract when they went on strike April 13 over outsourcing and the hiring of more nonunion contractors and employees. Before coming back to the table, Verizon's last offer was a 7.5 percent raise and protection from lay-offs.

The final agreement includes a 10.9 percent raise over the next four years, including a 3 percent raise when the contract is ratified, as well as a $1,250 signing bonus for employees in the Mid-Atlantic, a $1,000 signing bonus and $250 healthcare reimbursement for employees in the Northeast, $700 in corporate profit sharing for each of the next four years, most call centers threatened with closures will stay open rather than see the jobs there outsourced, and 1,300 new call center jobs, 850 in the Mid-Atlantic and 450 in the Northeast.

The contract also includes about 70 Verizon wireless retail store workers and an increase in the number of union crews maintaining utility poles in New York state.

"This tentative contract is an important step forward in helping to end this six-week strike and keeping Verizon jobs in America," Lonnie Stephenson, president of the IBEW, said in a press release.

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