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Verizon strike hits day 10
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August 15, 2000: 9:01 a.m. ET
Talks progress; mandatory overtime remains a major sticking point
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Mandatory overtime continues to hamper an agreement between management and more than 85,000 striking workers at Verizon Communications as the strike entered its tenth day Tuesday.
Mounting frustration was evident in a company spokesman's comments to reporters Tuesday, although he said progress continues to be made.
"I honestly believe we are in a situation where this could come together in a matter of hours if people agree that it's time to do that, but we haven't been able to get that kind of an agreement from the unions," Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe said. "Frankly, we think we're there. Obviously there's not complete agreement on this."
Rabe said discussions resumed early this morning and continued, making officials hopeful that a settlement is near. So far, the company has not considered, or been offered federal mediation assistance.
A primary concern of the 73,000 striking members of the Communications Workers of America and another 12,000 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has been the union's desire to win representation of employees in the company's growing wireless unit, as well as reducing job stress and forced overtime.
Rabe said Tuesday that talks had yielded progress on that issue as well as on distribution of work, namely installation and maintenance of Digital Subscriber Lines. DSL lines offer customers high-speed Internet access and telephone service over the same line.
Agreements also have been reached for competitive wages. However, the company has not yet decided whether to extend striking workers' health benefits, which expire at the end of the month, Rabe said.
Rabe said 30,000 managers continued to have about 80,000-90,000 outstanding repair orders, clearing 20,000-30,000 a day. The company has asked customers to hold off on requests for new service, adding that new service would be a priority for those with serious medical other emergency conditions.
 Shares of Verizon (VZ: Research, Estimates) slipped 7/16 to 42-1/16 Tuesday.
The unions have pushed the issue of mandatory, or "forced," overtime, saying that the stress of working in a high-pressure environment where rapid responses to incoming customer information, billing and other requests is demanded is compounded by having to work several hours of overtime daily.
Although all employees agree to work overtime as a condition of employment, the unions say Verizon has taken advantage of that.
The company acknowledges the high-pressure of the call centers, but said overtime hours are scheduled according to need.
Rabe said the company has been trying to figure out how to strike a balance by shifting work among call centers and limiting the amount of overtime employees have to work.
On Tuesday, 1,400 workers picketed outside 150 company locations from Maine to Virginia, Rabe said. Service disruptions to the company's 28 million customers continued. Rabe said vandalism incidents once again shot up into the hundreds Tuesday, the most notable example a fiber optic cable that was cut, disrupting service to 16,000 customers in Tewksbury, Mass.
Last week saw company and union officials confirm progress on the issue of union representation of wireless employees. But Sunday evening the CWA said there still was nothing on the table on its other key issues involving working conditions.
In a statement issued after 7 p.m. Monday, the CWA said both sides remained far apart on several issues including workplace stress and job security.
"CWA negotiators still have received no response from Verizon addressing in a significant way the problems of constant and excessive forced overtime and oppressively stressful job conditions for customer service employees -- issues cited by both sides as major roadblocks in the talks," the CWA said in its statement. "The key question of restricting the movement of union work in the post-merger company also remains unresolved."
Rabe disagreed with the statements saying progress continued. He also said he didn't think the company had lost any significant amount of its customer base because of the strike. 
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