Charges Fly Fast and Furiously as Verizon Strike Continues

A union representing striking Verizon workers said that several of its members have been struck by cars while on the picket line this week.

A memo from the Communication Workers of America alleges that two union workers were hit by a Verizon attorney driving his Porsche into a garage in Gaithersburg, Md., and that another worker was struck in a separate incident in Maryland.

Verizon, meanwhile, says it is the striking workers who have been in the wrong. Spokesman Rich Young said that in one incident, a union employee jumped on a worker’s car and then claimed he was hit.

“These are the sort of antics we see from the unions in any strike,” Young told Re/code. “It happened four years ago and we expected it again.”

Thousands of workers from Verizon’s landline and cable units went on strike Wednesday. The two sides met briefly on Friday, but a union representative said that talks ended after 30 minutes.

“Workers already have put hundreds of millions of dollars in health care cost savings on the table,” District Vice President Ed Mooney said in a statement. “We simply cannot compromise on contract changes that would ship more work overseas and have our families separated for months at a time.”

Young said that the strike represents a hardship for all Verizon workers, both those on strike and those forced to fill in for striking colleagues.

“We put the blame squarely in the hands of union leadership,” Young said. “They are the ones who called the strike.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.