Tension Increases at Verizon Strike in Toms River

Picketers at the Verizon facility on Hooper Avenue and Walnut Street this morning tried to prevent workers from entering the facility around 6 a.m. as they walked the sidewalks surrounding the property, and one man got his foot run over among a heightened police presence.

As many as 60 people were at the location around 6 a.m. Wednesday as part of a work stoppage of Verizon landline workers that began Sunday, those at the scene said. 

Greg Ferrara, a 15-year employee of Verizon employed at the Lakewood store, said that around 6 a.m., seven police vehicles were on the scene when supporters numbering more than 50 were walking the sidewalks surrounding the facility.

Ferrara said Joseph Warner, a central office technician for Verizon, was among picketers walking back and forth on the portions of the sidewalk at the parking lot entrance on the Walnut Street side of the property, when his foot was run over by a woman driving into the lot.

Verizon workers Patti Barrow and Terri Colver, told Toms River Patch this morning that they and other strikers continue to walk the sidewalks. They said police told picketers at 6 a.m. that they had to keep moving, and that after walking in front of the parking lot entrances for more than a minute, they’d have to let vehicles through.

At 9:30 a.m., the number of protesters numbered around a dozen, who continued to walk the sidewalks as part of the ongoing strike.

About 5,400 Verizon workers in New Jersey are among the 45,000 workers on strike after contract talks broke off after midnight Saturday, when a three-year pact expired for wireline employees in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, Verizon and a union leader said Sunday morning.

Currently, most union-represented employees pay nothing for health insurance premiums at Verizon, the company said in an online statement of its position on bargaining with the unions.

"The company is proposing that its union-represented employees pay a portion of their health care premiums, much like the majority of other Verizon employees," the site said.

Under a proposed new contract, Marc C. Reed, Verizon’s executive vice-president of human resources, said on Sunday morning, union employees will continue to receive "competitive pay and benefit programs.”

In a statement released Sunday morning, Verizon said, "Verizon’s attempts to reach a constructive new contract with two unions representing the company’s wireline employees in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states were unsuccessful and union leaders announced a decision to call a strike."