Union members gather for a strike outside Verizon office in Massapequa on Wednesday, Aug. 10.
Verizon union members will return to work next week without a new agreement.
The nearly 3,000 striking workers on Long Island will head back to work on Tuesday, working under the terms of the contract that expired Saturday, Aug. 6.
No deadline has been set for writing up a new collective bargaining agreement, Verizon said, allowing the two sides to take their time to resolve “critical issues.”
Verizon workers, who have been on strike for nearly two weeks, stopped picketing around 1 p.m. Saturday, Stella Pereyra, business agent for Communications Workers of America Local 1104 told the Press.
“The two sides are going to continue to negotiate,” she said, stressing that union members want to “retain our benefits and job security.”
In a statement released on Saturday, Marc Reed, Verizon’s executive vice president of human resources said the two sides agreed to end the strike because it’s in the “best interest of our customers and our employees.”
He added: “We are grateful to our management team for their leadership during the past 14 days in so ably meeting the needs of our customers. The team’s competence, dedication and hard work enabled us to withstand the strike without significant disruption to customer service, and to convince the unions to begin bargaining with us in good faith…We are pleased that during this stressful economic period our union-represented employees will be back at work earning good wages and benefits while serving our customers.”
In a statement released on its website, CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said major issues remain to be discussed, but they are focused on negotiating with the company.
“We appreciate the unity of our members and the support of so many in the greater community,” CWA said. “Now we will focus on bargaining fairly and moving forward.”
Verizon union members were on strike for nearly two weeks, and protested outside Verizon stores throughout the east coast after negotiations between the two sides regarding a new labor contract stalled earlier this month. The agreement will put 45,000 workers in nine Northeastern states and Washington D.C., back to work.
With union-workers back to work, Verizon said they plan to quickly address any backlog in repairs and unfulfilled requests for service.
