Officials from Verizon Communications and the two unions representing the company’s workers sounded confident Monday a potential strike would be avoided.

If members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers do strike in Maryland, Verizon’s management employees would handle customer service or maintenance calls.

“We don’t anticipate a work stoppage,” Sandra Arnette, spokeswoman for Verizon Maryland, said Monday.

“But Verizon’s management employees are prepared to fill in if necessary.”

This story continues below
Advertisement

Negotiations continued Monday between Verizon and CWA and IBEW on a new contract after the current was set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Sunday.

Major bargaining issues include health care coverage for employees and retirees, wages, and union representation for new job areas.

Both unions over the weekend agreed to “stop the clock” on the expiration of the current contract and postpone strike action because progress had been made in negotiations.

Workers reported for their shifts Monday while the current contract remained in effect, and operations were “business as usual,” Arnette said.

“Verizon continues to negotiate in good faith to reach agreement with CWA and IBEW — we have no deadline,” Arnette said. “However, it’s clearly important that we reach a new contract agreement as quickly as possible.”

The contract covers 65,000 members of CWA and IBEW who work for Verizon from Massachusetts to Virginia.

More than 12,000 Verizon employees work in Maryland, of which about 6,600 are CWA members, said Candice Johnson, spokeswoman for CWA.

Most IBEW workers are employed in New England, Johnson said.

More than 90 percent of workers in the unions last week voted to approve a strike if a new contract deal wasn’t reached when the previous contract expired, Johnson said.

While there are still issues to be discussed, the unions were encouraged by progress in negotiations. “There are still several issues to be resolved,” Johnson said Monday.

“There are issues of job security and health care that the two sides need to come together on. There’s a lot of give-and-take.”

In addition to asking management employees to fill in for striking workers, Verizon has in the past hired contractors to fill in.

“But that’s not always the best for customers,” Johnson said. “We’re clearly working to resolve the situation.”

The labor negotiations are occuring just days after Verizon Maryland announced the company’s FiOS Internet and FiOS TV services are available to 700,000 consumers and businesses in Maryland.

Verizon offers the services in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, and the company is placing its all-fiber network in Harford and Charles counties.

The last work stoppage at Verizon was in 2000 and lasted 18 days.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

acannarsa@baltimoreexaminer.com