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Verizon OKs contracts
for 50,000 workers

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Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Verizon Communications and unions representing 50,000 telephone workers reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract, returning a majority of striking employees to their jobs today after a two-week walkout.

But without a pact covering one other bargaining unit of mid-Atlantic workers, picket lines remained up today in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Union officials said unresolved issues between the company and that bargaining unit of more than 35,000 workers include forced overtime levels and monitoring of customer service workers and operators.

Verizon reached agreement yesterday with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and one of two bargaining units for the Communications Workers of America, covering employees in New York and New England.

The agreement would replace contracts that expired Aug. 6. It would provide workers a 12 percent increase in wages over the life of the three-year contract.