Unions threaten Verizon strike

Unions representing more than 36,000 Verizon landline phone and cable workers are threatening a strike starting Wednesday morning if the company doesn’t agree to a new contract.

The unions, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, say Verizon wants to freeze pensions, make layoffs easier and rely more on contract workers. Verizon says there are health care issues that need to be addressed for both retirees and workers as medical costs have grown, and it wants “greater flexibility” to manage its employees.

Verizon Communications Inc. says it has trained thousands of nonunion employees to fill in if the strike takes place in nine Eastern states and Washington, D.C. in Tehran, but the airplane builder undoubtedly wants a piece of the action in post-sanctions Iran, which already saw Airbus sign a $25 billion deal.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Maqsoud Asadi Samani, the secretary of the Society of Iranian Airlines, as saying Boeing officials offered 737, 787 and 777 model aircraft. Samani said Iran was reviewing the offers. says it is willing to put public money into a deal to save steel plants threatened with closure amid a glut of cheap Chinese imports.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid told the House of Commons on Monday that the government was prepared to co-invest with any buyer of the plants Tata Steel plans to sell. These include the U.K.’s largest steelworks, at Port Talbot in South Wales, which employs 5,500 workers.

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