[UPDATE] Verizon On Strike: Internet, Cable Outages Could Take Weeks To Repair

Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers walked off their jobs and onto picket lines Wednesday, marking the largest work stoppage of any U.S. industry in years. Delays of weeks are possible to reconnect many of the company's 140 million customers who lose cable television or their internet connections and even longer waits for new subscribers wanting Verizon's FIOS and mobile services.

The Communications Workers of America and the Brotherhood of Electrical Engineers began their strike at 6 a.m., intent on gaining job security from a company raking in billions of dollars in profits a year.

"Extremely on," Rob Master, a CWA spokesman, told Patch Wednesday morning by e-mail. "About 700 on picket line here on West 36th Street" in New York City.

• SEE ALSO: Verizon On Strike: Thousands Join Picket Lines And Protests

Picket lines and larger demonstrations were planned up and down the Eastern Seaboard, from Massachusetts to Virginia.

New Jersey-based Verizon says that it has hired thousands of non-union, replacement workers to cover striking employees and is prepared for however long is necessary.

When 45,000 Verizon workers went on strike in 2011, though, customers complained of going without internet service and cable television for two weeks or longer.

"We’re standing up for working families and standing up to Verizon’s corporate greed,” CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor said in the union statement released this week. “If a hugely profitable corporation like Verizon can destroy the good family supporting jobs of highly skilled workers, then no worker in America will be safe from this corporate race to the bottom.”

Yvonne Byers, a technician from Brooklyn who has worked for Verizon for 19 years, handed out flyers to passersby outside of a retail store in Manhattan. Around her, a crowd of CWA members held signs, yelled chants and lobbed lusty boos at people who stopped to look inside the store.

“The company is being very greedy and very stingy, so we’re not getting what we need," Byers said. "Not so much what we want, but what we need.”

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, campaigning for New York's presidential primary next week, stopped by one of the demonstrations in Brooklyn to preach his pro-union message.

"Brothers and sisters, thank you for your courage in standing up for justice against corporate greed," he told workers.

On the other side of the ticket, Hillary Clinton put out a statement of her own, telling Verizon to "come back to the bargaining table."

"To preserve and grow America's middle class, we need to protect good wages and benefits, including retirement security," the statement said. "And we should be doing all we can to keep good-paying jobs with real job security in New York."

• SEE ALSO: Verizon Announces $300M Deal in Mass. On Eve of Massive Strike

Union leaders are alleging that even though Verizon made $39 billion in profits over the last three years, the company wants to “gut job security protections, contract out more work and send jobs overseas, and require technicians to work away from home for as long as two months without seeing their families.”

The corporate giant is also refusing to negotiate any improvements in wages, benefits or working conditions for Verizon Wireless retail workers, who formed a union in 2014, labor leaders allege.

According to labor leaders, contract negotiations began in June 2015; the workers’ contracts expired on August 1 last year.

“For months and months, we’ve made every effort to reach a fair agreement at the bargaining table,” Myles Calvey, another union leader, said in the statement. “We’ve offered Verizon hundreds of millions of dollars in cost savings and yet they still refuse to provide basic job security for workers. We have to take a stand now for our families and every American worker.”

According to union leaders, Verizon Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam earns 200 times more than the average Verizon employee. In addition, the company’s top five executives allegedly made $233 million over the last five years.

VERIZON’S REPLY

Verizon representatives said that the company is “fully prepared to serve its customers” in the event of a strike.

A company statement said it has trained thousands of non-union Verizon employees to carry out “virtually every job function handled by our represented workforce,” from making repairs on utility poles to responding to inquiries in its call centers.

“Let’s make it clear – we are ready for a strike,” Bob Mudge, president of Verizon’s wireline network operations, said in the statement. “With any sort of job action or disruption to our business, our primary goal is to ensure our customers can count on the critical communications services that they pay for and we provide. I want them to know that will happen.”

The company also says it is open to federal mediators stepping in to eventually hammer out a deal.

Verizon says it has approached contract negotiations with “a goal of preserving good jobs while also making critical changes needed to legacy contracts.”

Verizon’s 36,000 employees covered under these contracts currently have a wage and benefit package that averages more than $130,000 a year, the company asserted.

Over 99 percent of these employees support the company’s wireline business, which in 2015, contributed about 29 percent of Verizon’s revenue but less than seven percent of its operating income, company spokespeople stated.

“We’ve tried to work with union leaders to reach a deal,” said Marc Reed, Verizon’s chief administrative officer. “Verizon has been moving the bargaining process forward, but now union leaders would rather make strike threats than constructively engage at the bargaining table.”

“A strike in this case is not going to change the issues on the table that need to be addressed,” Reed added.

According to Verizon, offered terms of its wireline contract proposal include:

• A 6.5 percent wage increase over the term of the contract
• “Competitive retirement benefits” including a 401K with a company match

Verizon spokespeople also said that the current proposal includes “structural changes” to its health plan due to rising healthcare costs.

LAWMAKERS URGE VERIZON TO REACH AGREEMENT

In a March 18 letter to McAdam, 20 U.S. senators called for the Verizon to “act as a responsible corporate citizen and negotiate a fair contact with the employees who make your success possible.”

Signatories to the letter included Bernie Sanders, Robert Menendez, Cory Booker and Charles Schumer.

The senators wrote:

“It is our understanding that the [CWA and IBEW] have offered to negotiate substantial savings in health care for the wireline workforce, but there are additional areas of concern for your workers, including job security, the treatment of sick and injured workers, pensions and the contracting out of work. While we recognize that changes in technology and customer preference have led to a decline in landline service, driving the need for some contract changes, we also want to be sure that Verizon preserves good, family-supporting jobs in our region.”

Eric Kiefer, Kara Seymour and Deb Belt contributed to this report.

Photo: CWA Local 1101 workers protest outside a Verizon store in New York City on Sunday