IBEW Local 2321 members Kevin Murphy, left, Kelly Noel, center, and Geoff Laskiewicz, right, maintain the strike against Verizon by picketing along the sidewalk outside the Verizon garage in Methuen, Massachusetts. 

At least one of the two unions representing striking Verizon workers plans to let members off the picket line in Massachusetts to find work and are reaching out to other groups and unions for support, exposing the financial strains of a prolonged work stoppage that marked four weeks on Wednesday.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which represents many of the roughly 39,000 union employees who walked off the job April 13 after contract negotiations broke down, held two meetings for this week – one Monday in Lawrence, Massachusetts and another Tuesday in Middleton, Massachusetts – for members to ask questions about state aid for health care and food.

Craig Fields, business manager for IBEW local 2321, based in North Andover and representing 800 workers in the state, said other unions, including the Teamsters, Steelworkers and Professional Firefighters, have helped out.

“We can’t have everyone on the line because people will need to start finding work,” he said. “The presence daily won’t be as strong, so we need other groups to join us and help us spread the manpower.”

Verizon and the unions last met for negotiations on May 2, a brief exchange of a union counterproposal the company quickly rejected. Since then, the only contract meeting has been the unions’ bargaining committee last Friday, Fields said.

Several people walking the line outside the Verizon garage in Methuen, Massachusetts, however, said it would be difficult finding a job, even part time.

“It’s hard to get a part-time job. You don’t know when you’re going back,” Geoff Laskiewicz of Derry, Massachusetts, said.

Kevin Murphy of Salem, New Hampshire, said employers often will not hire someone just for a few weeks. He and Kelly Noel, of Atkinson, said losing health insurance for their families at the beginning of the month was a big loss.

As the strike drags on, both Verizon and the unions have offered differing accounts of how the replacement workers, which Verizon began training last year in anticipation of a strike, are performing.

“While we’d rather have our seasoned veterans in these positions, each day, more and more customers are giving us high marks in that their inquiries and issues are being successfully resolved in our call centers and in the field,” Bob Mudge, president of Verizon’s wireline network operations, said in a statement. 

But union members and officials have reported anecdotal stories of residential and business customers losing service because of mistakes the replacements made, and of accidents in Upstate New York.

The workers with the IBEW and the Communications Workers of America – many copper and fiber optic line workers and some Verizon Wireless store employees – walked out last month after contract negotiations stalled. One of the biggest sticking points is the closure of domestic customer service call centers in favor of overseas contractors. The unions say they want to protect American jobs; Verizon says it needs flexibility in its workforce to compete globally.

Verizon said more than 1,000 employees went back to work when company health insurance ended for strikers May 1.

Moser writes for the North Andover, Massachusetts Eagle Tribune.