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Verizon talks grow intense
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August 19, 2000: 6:00 p.m. ET
Negotiators remain at table over weekend as progress continues
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - As a strike by two unions against Verizon Communications entered its third week Saturday, negotiators continued to discuss solutions to the remaining issues of relocation and required overtime.
"Intense negotiations have continued late last evening, then resumed again at 9:30 a.m.," said Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe from the talks in Washington D.C.. "The current talks are intense."
Union negotiators said Friday they believed an agreement to end a 14-day strike against Verizon Communications is much closer than in the last few days, but that several details still must be worked out, namely ways to keep the union involved in work that is transferred to different sites and a scaling back of mandatory overtime.
"There are issues at both of those tables," said Jeff Miller, spokesman for the Communications Workers of America, which represents about 72,000 Verizon workers, Saturday.
Negotiators representing more than 85,000 striking members of the Communication Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers did not walk away from the table as they threatened to do midnight ET Thursday, because substantial progress had been made.
 A Friday statement from the CWA, which represents about 72,000 striking employees, said "substantial progress" has been reported, but that "several important issues still remain to be worked out."
Verizon officials put forth a new proposal package late Thursday, Spellane said.
The strike affects directory assistance, service and repairs in Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Rabe said Friday that the company had a backlog of about 100,000 repair orders, more than normal for this time of year, mainly because of bad weather that has disrupted service in the Northeast. In addition, the 30,000 managers who have taken the place of striking workers have continued to clear 25,000-to-30,000 repair orders a day.
Rabe said 2,000 striking workers picketed outside 332 Verizon offices from Maine to the Virginias Saturday, and that incidents of vandalism had fallen to about 119 from 175 the day before.
The company has asked customers seeking new phone service to hold off until the strike is settled. But Rabe said the company has a backlog of new service requests in the tens of thousands, being the strike comes in the midst of its busy season. Summer is typically when most people move and call for phone service in their new residences, Rabe said.
Deal seen on representing wireless employees
Both the company and Spellane said the basics of an agreement on unionizing the company's wireless employees had been reached, but that several details still had to be worked out and that it was not a done deal. The unions are seeking an easier process to organize that nonunion segment of the company.
The unions' desire to represent employees in the growing wireless segment of the company is one of the key issues, along with overtime and working conditions.
Verizon was formed June 30 through the merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp., and is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the United States, with about 27 million customers.
Rabe said Thursday the company tries to schedule overtime so employees know when they'll have to work ahead of time, noting that most of the overtime is done by employees who volunteer to work the extra hours.
Union officials argue that that the company has been too liberal in applying its mandatory overtime rule, forcing many call center employees to work 50- to 60-hour weeks.
Analysts said the strike is not likely to reduce company profit because most service continues uninterrupted. But the strike comes at a time when the company is trying to craft a public image as a new technology-driven company after the merger.
"Now they're being ... associated with the 'old economy' aspect of their business -- a unionized work force," said Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette analyst Richard Klugman.
Shares of Verizon (VZ: Research, Estimates) recovered somewhat Friday. The stock was up 1-9/16 to 42-5/16 in afternoon trading Friday. 
- from staff and wire reports
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