Sides talking in Verizon strike, and vandalism reported

Amid reports of vandalism and tentative talks between labor and management, striking Verizon workers formed a river of red in their union T-shirts at a rally in Chinatown on Monday morning.

About 600 workers thronged outside a Verizon operations facility at Ninth and Race Streets, temporarily blocking traffic, as they listened to speeches, shouted slogans, and heard updates from their leaders.

They were among 45,000 Verizon Communications Inc. employees who went on strike early Sunday morning after management and labor failed to reach agreement on a contract.

"It was very crowded, very energetic, and very hopeful," said union steward Kim Rogers of Glenolden, a customer-service representative.

Similar large-scale rallies were held in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, and in various locations from New England to Virginia, including Washington.

The strike is over wages, benefits, working conditions, and outsourcing. Each side accuses the other of being stubborn and unwilling to bargain, but there is some tentative communication between the two.

The striking workers, members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, are service technicians, operators, and customer-service consultants who handle Verizon's landline business, as well as its "wired" FiOS network.

Verizon has 196,000 workers. Of those, 135,000 are nonunion, many working for the mobile side of the business, Verizon Wireless, which is growing even as landline use decreases. Verizon Wireless workers are not on strike.

In a statement Monday, Verizon said it had obtained a court injunction against illegal picketing activities in Pennsylvania. Company spokesman Richard Young said he did not know details.

James Gardler, president of Philadelphia-based CWA Local 13000, which represents 5,000 Verizon workers in the state, said the company had obtained a limited injunction covering one facility in Berks County.

The company said there had been acts of sabotage, including 10 incidents of fiber-optic lines being deliberately cut in New York state. An outage due to stolen electronic equipment affected a police department in Cedar Grove, Essex County, N.J.

Locally, some customers said they experienced long waits when calling for service, and that they were told their calls were being routed to Dallas and Utah.

Steve Andresen of South Philadelphia, a regional sales manager for a computer company, said that the FiOS cable in his backyard was cut early Sunday morning, causing him to lose his Internet, television, and telephone connection.

A nonunion Verizon crew was dispatched to investigate. The line had been cut, and there was a stubbed-out cigarette butt in his yard. "I don't smoke," Andresen said.

Gardler said union members were specifically instructed not to vandalize, but instead to be alert for trucks operated by nonunion workers. "I don't know what kind of training they have," he said.

Typically, in advance of strikes, companies move some equipment outside their usual facilities, which may be blocked by picketing. Verizon did that, Young said.

Andresen said he was told Verizon trucks had been locked up at the Navy Yard.

In Villanova, surgeon Eric Carlson said he and his neighbors lost television, telephone, and Internet service after a FiOS cable to the neighborhood had been cut.