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No agreement yet in Verizon talks

Negotiations resume Monday morning. No progress has been made on issues of wages or health care costs.

By LOUIS HAU
Published July 31, 2005

Verizon Communications and the union representing about 5,000 company employees in Florida failed to reach a new labor pact Saturday but agreed to extend their current contract while talks continue.

Verizon and Local 824 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers ended their latest round of contract negotiations Saturday afternoon and will resume talks Monday morning.

"We didn't want to see a disruption in service for customers," said Doug Sellars, assistant business manager for Local 824.

Sellars said the two sides have made limited progress on the hot-button issues of job security and workplace flexibility, declining to discuss specifics. But he said there has been no headway on health care costs and wages and haven't yet agreed on the duration of the new contract.

Verizon said Saturday that it wants to drop a $7 co-payment for prescription drugs and instead require employees to pay 20 percent of the cost of each prescription, up to $40 per prescription, Sellars said.

The IBEW wants to keep the co-pay while gradually increasing employee contributions for drug costs, he said.

On wages, the company has offered a one-time bonus payment of 4 percent of an employee's salary and a 1 percent raise in the first year of the new pact, followed by a 2 percent raise in the second year and pay hikes of 2.5 percent in the third, fourth and fifth years.

The union wants annual pay increases of 3 percent over three years, without the bonus.

Verizon spokesman Bob Elek declined to discuss details, but said the two sides "definitely made movement" on job security and workplace flexibility issues.

"I think the only thing that happened here is that we ran out of time," Elek said. "We're still optimistic that we'll reach a mutually beneficial situation."

The IBEW's contract talks with Verizon in Florida are its first since the company began an ambitious effort to install a fiber-optic network to offer new services, including cable TV channels. Because fiber-optic lines require only a fraction of the maintenance of traditional copper-wire lines, union officials have placed a high priority on protecting employees from potential job losses.

Elek said that during the past year, Verizon has hired 467 employees to work on projects related to its new fiber-optic network and has retrained 165 existing technicians for fiber work.

Such moves demonstrate that "we are doing what we can to keep the existing workforce up to speed with the new technologies," Elek said.

Louis Hau can be reached at 813 226-3404 or hau@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 31, 2005, 01:30:13]