Sanders urges deal for Verizon workers

Vermont — Sen. Bernie Sanders waded into a labor dispute involving Verizon on Monday, urging the telecommunications giant to negotiate a fair contract for 39,000 members of the Communications Workers of America.

The Democratic presidential candidate joined Verizon workers at a demonstration outside a Verizon Wireless store near Times Square. He also defended a union official who says she was fired after organizing Verizon Wireless stores in Brooklyn.

“You’ve got corporate America making huge profits, their CEOs getting huge compensation packages, and then with all of their money what they do is hire lawyers in order to make it harder for workers to survive in this country,” Sanders told a crowd of more than 100 outside the Verizon store as passers-by watched.

Sanders made the union push as Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton has picked up the endorsements of several major labor unions, including the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union last Friday.

Sanders also met with the New York-based SEIU 1199. Hillary Rodham Clinton was expected to meet with leaders of SEIU 1199, a local health care workers union, on Tuesday.

Verizon spokesman Rich Young said union leaders have issued “a myriad of distracting mischaracterizations, distorted facts and innuendo.”