Verizon strike underscores changes in telecom

About 40,000 workers at Verizon have been on strike since April 13 in several East Coast states, including New York, Massachusetts and Virginia. They include unionized network technicians and customer service representatives of the company's fiber optic or FiOS Internet, telephone and television services.

Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research, tied declines on the overall number of Verizon employees to big changes in the telecom industry. People have mostly given up on landline phones. And growth in fiber-optic services is flat. To cut costs in wireline as revenue softens, Verizon wants to do things like outsource more, which the striking workers don't like. And Verizon wants to invest more in wireless services.