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Verizon Reaches an Agreement with Unions to End Strike

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As per the U.S. Labor Department, Verizon and its two unions extended an agreement on a new labor contract, flagging about 39,000 landline employees to resume work after a long strike of 44 days.
As per a statement passed by Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, the four-year deal is going to be put into writing and the union members will start working next week. It will be the first time that the agreement will be expanded to 165 Verizon wireless employees.
Union leaders are thankful to Perez who brought Verizon Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam and two union executives to Washington for discussion of alternatives to resolve the issue.
“This proves that when we stand together we can raise up working families, improve our communities and protect the American middle class,” said CWA President Chris Shelton.
IBEW President Lonnie Stephenson shared that the provisional contract is a significant advancement in bringing the six-week strike to an end and keep “good Verizon jobs in America.”
Chief Administrative Officer Marc Reed said in a statement “Verizon is very pleased with this ‘agreement in principle.” “We look forward to having all of our employees soon back at work in their regular positions and doing what they do best — serving our customers.”
The shares of Verizon grew less than 1 percent to $50.62 at the close Friday in New York.
Roger Entner, an analyst with Recon Analytics LLC said “In the end, it looks like everyone wins.”
“The employees will get an increase over four years, which is a year longer than originally proposed. And Verizon can get all its employees back to work, including those that had been filling in on the landline side.”
To fulfil business requirements during the strike, Verizon had dispatched non-union workers and managers to call centers and field-service assignments. As per Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo, the strike has affected the company’s landline business. After-effects of the strike might result in non-inclusion of FiOS TV or broadband customers in the quarter.
In addition to FiOS business, the company has been casting off union-heavy operations in three states since last month.
“This might be the last big strike for Verizon because wireline will have less and less leverage in an increasingly wireless business,” said Entner.

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AT&T, Verizon Landline Service Quality Problem to be Investigated

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The California Public Utilities Commission plans to investigate why AT&T and Verizon aren’t providing quality services to the state. Soon, a finance investigation in their infrastructure will take place. Recently, the commission has directed both companies to provide financial information to an independent consultant so that network analysis can take place within the next three months, following the fact that the performance of both of these telecom companies has consistently failed to meet existing service quality metrics. However, the decision came nearly four years after the commission initially recommended the investigation. During the investigation, CPUC found that the provider was unable to restore services within the given time span whereas smaller carriers were able to meet customer requirements and thereby restore service in time frame guidelines.

After two years, the CPUC ordered the investigation to be necessary and the companies will have to pay fines if any flaw was found. The condition of the carriers’ infrastructure and plan directly affects its subscribers to which delivering quality services are essential. However, both the carriers protested the taking of financial responsibilities for the studies and hence no investigation has been conducted to date.

In response to the CPUC’s claim and decision AT&T said, “The Commission out of service metric was inherently flawed and the allegations of substandard performance are flatly wrong.” The company also included that it had already submitted “extended and unrefuted evidence as proof regarding the allegation of outdated metrics. In addition, it alleged to be currently providing budget home phone services to its users.

Similarly, Verizon also defended itself by concluding that their company’s network was reliable and all the allegations were off the mark. They claimed to be providing cheap home phone services to its customers. In response, CPUC said the arguments have been misunderstood by both the companies and they aren’t providing a strong reason as to why the ordered investigation shouldn’t take place.

The CPUC’s decision states that “Given the absence of relevant circumstances or new evidence, we find that it would not be appropriate to further defer the ordered study. Further delay could undermine the integrity of the regulatory process by suggesting that if enough time passes without action on a Commission order, that order can be disregarded.” Under this decision, Commission staff has been ordered to report to collect funds from companies in three months and then provide a status report in 6 months regarding the progress of the investigation.