Verizon Tentative Agreement: Letter from Dennis Trainor and Frequently Asked Questions

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FROM THE OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

March 9, 2026

Brothers, Sisters, CWA Family,

It’s fitting that the District 1 Verizon Bargaining Committee can come to you with a Tentative Agreement on a contract extension in 2026 — ten years since our historic 7-week strike. That strike proved once again our toughness and resiliency — so much so that it’s helped us win three strong contract extensions, even as the conditions in our country and at the bargaining table have put us to the test.

Let me be clear from the start: like every contract, this agreement does not resolve every issue faced by our members and retirees; in my 30 years of bargaining, I have never walked away at the end of negotiations with every single thing our members wanted. But I believe this agreement is a very, very strong one, and we can all be very proud of the work that went into securing this deal, both over the last few months and in the last ten years. 

This agreement moves us forward in meaningful ways — strong salary increases, new job hires that will strengthen our bargaining unit, increased retirement protections, a continuation of  tearing down the barriers the company put up between wireline and wireless (a goal of the Union for the last 25 years) and more — while protecting the standards we’ve fought for throughout our union’s history. To be clear, there is not one give back in this contract. We held the line through and through and brought home some real improvements. 

We negotiated this Agreement with our Union Brothers and Sisters in CWA District 2-13, IBEW New England, IBEW New York and IBEW 827 New Jersey — a coalition we’ve built over the past 25 years that has given us the power to help win numerous agreements. Their Bargaining Committees all unanimously support this Agreement, because they feel as we do, that this is a strong contract.

In May of 2025, we began negotiations with Verizon for an extension Agreement, which subsequently broke off twice over the retiree pre-Medicare benefit issue. In late 2025, after numerous discussions with the company, one of which with the CEO himself, and with the approval of every Local President, the parties agreed to resume talks for an extension agreement beginning in early 2026, with the understanding that the Caps were not going to be on the table. 

While this may be a point of disagreement among some Bargaining Committee Members now, the majority of the Committee feels strongly that this contract, in its entirety, is a very strong one — they would not have voted to bring it to you otherwise — and considering the vastly different bargaining climate this year compared to 2016, with no support from the Federal Government, a gutted National Labor Relations Board, and an extremely unstable economy, mobilizing or striking simply would not win us more than what we’ve secured in this contract; and in fact, could risk other parts of the contract that are off the table during early bargaining.

However, while we have not been able to decrease the healthcare costs facing our retirees in this contract, the Union is not and will not abandon our Retirees; in fact, we’ve successfully maintained a very strong retirement package, despite significant pressure from the Company and a nationwide healthcare crisis. Only 13% of large, private employers that offer health benefits also offer some retiree health benefits — and this number is declining every year. The pressure on this benefit is enormous, but in spite of that, this contract holds the line on what our members have earned. Furthermore, it secures significant improvements for our post-’08 and post-’12 members' retirement security, narrowing the disparities. 

This strong agreement is the result of years of CWA militancy, solidarity, and our willingness to take action when necessary. Our power has made the difference, even as the conditions the Union faces at the bargaining table have gotten tougher and anti-union forces have increased the intensity of their attacks on us. While working families across this country are being squeezed tighter and tighter, we can be proud of what we’ve accomplished with this agreement.

I have been active in the Union for more than 50 years and have never shied away from a fight.  I share the strong spirit of militancy that exists in District One members. We have achieved a strong contract because the company knows the District One members will fight when necessary. But I don’t believe that we should reject this deal and risk everything we have, including the gains this contract provides, considering the conditions we are currently facing in this country.  

Our union is committed to doing the best we can for our members and retirees, but sometimes that means taking the fight away from the bargaining table. In this case, it means fighting to fix the healthcare system in this country, to elect pro-union people at the state and federal level who stand by working families and are committed to fixing the healthcare crisis. This agreement isn’t the end of our work; it’s a very strong step in the right direction.

Let me finish by being absolutely clear: I’m proud that our union is a democratic union. Every single member has a voice and a vote. We respect the democratic process of the union, and want you to make a decision for yourself — with all of the information and facts you need to make that decision.

Please take some time to review the FAQ below so you can make an informed decision to accept or reject this tentative agreement.

The solidarity and strength of our membership made this agreement possible, and I thank each one of you for your commitment to our union and for the hard work you do every day.

In Solidarity,

Dennis G. Trainor
Vice President, CWA District 1

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What happens if the tentative agreement is rejected?

The parties are obligated to begin new negotiations 60 days before the expiration of our current agreement. But we don’t get to pick up from where we are today; we start completely from scratch. Furthermore, unlike early bargaining, where only certain topics are on the table, every single part of our contract will be subject to negotiations.  

If Verizon takes a similar approach to what they did in 2015-16, which they will, we will be fighting to keep our disability plan, the lump sum pension option, the Work at Home agreement, daily travel allowances, differentials, Force Adjustment Plan, the 35 mile transfer limitation, board and lodging, and more. 

We also know that prior to negotiations, they will begin sending us new contracting initiative letters and we will be forced to spend bargaining power fighting to preserve what we have instead of bringing in new work, which the tentative agreement before you accomplishes.

2. Why wasn’t retiree healthcare addressed in this agreement?

There is a legitimate concern among many of our members regarding pre-Medicare retiree healthcare. Many of our retirees recently saw their healthcare costs increase. Below is an explanation about how we landed where we are today and what we believe can be done about it.

Given the current economic and political conditions, we believe addressing this issue during this round of negotiations is unattainable. Even when everything was on our side in 2016, this was a line in the sand for the Company. During the negotiations for what became our 2016 contract, we were running a phenomenal strike - and fighting to increase the Caps. We had the federal government on our side, and even had the Secretary of Labor host negotiations in his office to resolve the issue. But the company was willing to walk out of those talks at the Department of Labor building in Washington, DC, over the pre-Medicare retiree benefit (the Caps). In the end, we agreed to leave the Caps at their current amount and gained the right to bargain alternative options for our retirees. Now, with no support from the Federal Government, a volatile economy, a healthcare crisis that has increased the cost of these plans, and the vast majority of other employers ditching this benefit while we still enjoy up to a $38,693/year benefit, we do not think that this is a strategic fight to have right now and would be extremely risky.

From 2016 through 2025 the pre-Medicare plan did not significantly pierce the Caps. The result has been that our pre-Medicare retirees have had no or minimal increases in the premiums they had paid for a decade. However, we recognize that for many retirees the increase in 2026 was unexpected and burdensome.

We will continue to work for real reform in our nation’s healthcare system by getting allies elected at the State and Federal level who will put workers interests before the profits of greedy insurance companies and providers who have built conglomerates to increase their profits and drive up costs. This issue will not be fixed on a picket line.

As mentioned above, we gained the right to bargain alternative options for our retirees in the 2016 agreement. Through the Union’s work at the Advisory Committee on Health Care we were able to offer our pre-Medicare retirees the following alternative options for 2026:

• Enroll in the HRA option, providing you the equivalent dollar value of the Caps ($15,447/year for individual coverage, $30,894/year for +1 coverage, and $38,693/year for family coverage) to purchase a plan on the open market and/or to use to pay out-of-pocket medical costs
• An alternative MEP plan that has a different plan design with lower premium payments than the traditional MEP plan
• A United Healthcare Surest plan that takes a different approach to medical coverage

We encourage every pre-Medicare retiree and any active member planning to retire to evaluate each option in order to find the most cost-effective one. Additionally, retirees have ‘anytime enrollment’ which allows them to change plans outside of the enrollment period excluding the HRA option. All of these options are explained thoroughly in the annual enrollment materials that were sent to your homes.  

3. Did the Union give away our Representatives’ work to non-union Wireless Representatives?

No. There are two major changes in the agreement which will, in effect, expand our members’ work into Verizon Wireless and protect against any increase in the use of contractors taking calls. 

The proposed Agreement allows the company to have our Union Representatives sell Verizon Wireless products. This is a major win as it means increasing our scope of work and getting the Union into a core part of Verizon’s wireless side of the business — a goal of the Union’s for the past 25 years.

In exchange, the Agreement allows Wireless Representatives to perform limited, secondary functions for Telecom customers, which then are counted towards the 15% of calls that can be contracted out under our current agreement. 

• To be clear, these wireless representatives can only perform limited secondary functions like applying discounts or perks and making basic changes to accounts - all other customer requests are still required to be routed back to our representatives.
• Under the agreement, wireless representatives cannot establish, move/transfer, upgrade, renegotiate and/or disconnect FIOS accounts.  

This agreement will increase the amount and type of work our Union Representatives perform which strengthens their job security. 

Not a single member of the bargaining committee objected to including this specific provision as part of our overall proposal at the time we began including it.   

These changes keep our contracting protections intact, ensuring there will be no diminishment of our work, while increasing the work that we can perform. 

4. How does this TA impact retirement security for the post-08 and post 12 members?

The Agreement contains two improvements to post-08 and post-12 retirement security:

1. The post-08 retiree healthcare subsidy was increased from $576 to $772 for each year of credited service.
   1. It also reduced the number of years it takes to earn the full benefit from 25 years to 20 years
   2. This results in a maximum benefit of $15,440 (an increase of $1,000) and has the same value as the pre-08 individual tier benefit subject to the cap of $15,447
2. We increased the CPS award for post-12 members by moving the $2,500 discretionary Stock Together award into the CPS award making it guaranteed, added an additional $1,100 to the award, and maintained the $700 that was in our current agreement bringing the minimum total CPS award for post-12 members to $4,300 in each year of the agreement.
3. If a post-12 employee defers the entire award into their 401k and averages a 7% return over 30 years the value of this benefit would be $421,419.

5.  Why do I have to keep paying more for my medical benefit?

One of the most important benefits our union has won over the years is high-quality, affordable healthcare. Despite the total cost of our healthcare plans continuing to rise, we’ve been able to keep the contribution of our members reasonable while the employer  continues to bear 84% of the total cost of this benefit on average. 

This agreement does include incremental increases in members’ healthcare sharing costs; but despite how substantially the costs of our plans have increased recently, the increases we’re paying are similar to those in previous extension agreements.  

No one wants to agree to the increases but negotiations are a give-and-take process. Consider the following:

• The total cost of healthcare is going up for every single worker. This is a systemic issue that can only be fully addressed by State and Federal governments.
• For example, the total cost to cover a family under active members MEP Plan in 2019 was $26,583; in 2026, the cost is $42,065 — a nearly 60% increase in the cost of the plan.
• However, we’ve been able to ensure that members are only paying a fraction of that cost. On average the company is bearing 84% of the overall cost of health for our members — nothing in this agreement changes that.

The bottom line is that at a time when most employers across the country are shifting these rising healthcare costs overwhelmingly onto workers, we’ve managed to maintain a reasonable employee contribution rate, and the rate of our salary gains far outpaces the rate of any increases to what we pay for healthcare.

6.   What’s the total percentage salary increase that we’re getting?

With annual raises of 1% (on top of the 3% we were already slated to get in 2026 for a total of 4%), 3.5%, 3%, 3%, and 3%, your salary will increase by a total of 17.62% between 2026 and 2030.

In hard numbers, using the rates in Wage Zone 1, a Field Tech’s annual base salary will be $132,054 and a Representative’s will be $111,826 at the end of this agreement.

In addition to the wage increases, the minimum CPS award for all members was increased to $1,200 from $700 a year (post-12 CPS award differs and is explained above).

7.  Did we get any new work to strengthen our power and job security?

Yes. This Agreement makes significant progress in “tearing down the wall” between wireless and wireline. In the 2022 agreement we got the FWA (5G) work; in this Agreement we secured wireless work for our Representatives, Central Office Technicians, and Tech Bus/Gov members.

We reduced the amount of work Verizon Business contracts out — specifically splicing and cable pulls will be exclusively performed by bargaining unit members unless the work requires an infrastructure build.  

We are guaranteed new hires in the MET/MST title and to reduce the amount of network installation work the company contracts. We are also guaranteed new hires in the Conduit Worker title to reduce the amount of contracting at Empire City Subway.  And increased the call share percentage in our Tech Support Centers from 70% to 73%. 

In addition to the work we brought in, during the life of the agreement in the NY/NE footprint, the company is required to hire 900 new employees outside the centers and another 280 in the centers; 14 to perform the SAP/TAP wireless work that is now ours, 2 in Verizon Business facilities, and 187 former Frontier employees will become bargaining unit members for a total of 1,383 new bargaining unit jobs created as a result of this agreement. 

8. Verizon completed the acquisition of Frontier earlier this year.  Did the Union do anything for the CWA members at Frontier?

Frontier workers - represented by CWA Locals 1170, 1122 and 1111 -  will come into our bargaining unit no later than January 3, 2027, resulting in significantly higher wages and major improvement in their retiree health care benefit. It’ll also strengthen our Verizon NY/NE bargaining unit overall as 187 new members are covered under our Verizon CBA.

9.  Why didn’t the Union address A.I.?

At the end of negotiations the committee agreed that our current agreements contain adequate protections to deal with A.I, including:

• Force Adjustment Plan
• “Major technological change” notice requirement
• Call Share Agreement
• Our right to demand to bargain over changes in our terms and conditions of employment.
• The CWA and IBEW attorneys agreed with the strategy.

10.  Are there any other improvements in this agreement?

Yes. For the first time in over two decades we improved our dental benefit for both active and retirees. The annual maximum is being raised $500, the lifetime maximum orthodontia benefit is also being raised by $500 and the fee schedule is being increased by 20%.