Picketers Target Verizon Wireless Store [VIDEO]

Worcester-area Verizon landline workers are joining their unionized colleagues in a strike against their company, and this week, have targeted the Verizon Wireless store at 77 Boston Tpke.

The strike, which includes Verizon's 45,000 landline workers from Massachusetts to Virginia, started Sunday when the employees' contract expired. There are only a few dozen unionized members of the company's wireless division, but picketers on Wednesday said their decision to protest outside the Shrewsbury wireless store was so they could increase visibility.

Police have received a couple of complaints about the picketers, but there have been no incidents. In a 10-minute time frame, the workers got a half dozen beeps and waves while standing off Rte. 9 on Wednesday.

"Verizon's been sending a clear message to us that wireless is the future [of their success]," said Cory Bombredi, a Barre man who has worked in Worcester for four years.

The picketers are represented by the Communications Workers of America, Local 1400.

According to The Huffington Post, striking workers say they laid the foundation for the company's booming wireless business and shouldn't be expected to give up contract benefits just because they work on a less profitable side of the operation.

The picketers in Shrewsbury said they are most concerned about job security, and the company's trend of sending jobs to other parts of the country and overseas.

"It's no secret that the wireline business has experienced a 10-year decline in our customer base and in profitability," Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam told the Huffington Post. "... We have arrived at the point where we must make additional hard decisions to address customer needs and the overall operating costs of the business."

A union spokeswoman told the Huffington Post the company is seeking about $20,000 a year per worker in annual givebacks.

"This isn't only about our paycheck, it's not right for our customers," said Alison Rucci, as she stood at the entrance of the Verizon plaza on Wednesday. "With all the decreases they've made (sending jobs overseas), how many cuts have you gotten on your bill?"

While striking, the workers draw from the union's strike relief fund, getting paid $200 a week after two weeks, Bombredi said.

Bombredi says he has been saving up, and, with the help of his wife's job, could go months striking before he was in trouble financially. They hope, however, it doesn't come to that.

"We wouldn't have a job if workers before us hadn't stood up for what they thought was right," Rucci said.