This quote sums it up:
"In sum, what we are seeing is a fight between a company stuck in a business for which it has no enthusiasm, and workers stuck with a company to which there is no alternative. Wall Street analysts have suggested that Verizon should sell all of its landline business, but there is no natural buyer. What’s clear is that McAdam and others have a vision of the future with no wires and, consequently, with no unions."
This is why the company isn't likely to give in on anything and will just take this strike to a lockout and replace the union workers. There is nothing to gain for Verizon by pouring more costs into the wireline business which is shrinking. If they agree to a new 5 year contract they are basically agreeing to turn that business upside down financially for five years, which means no one will buy it from them and it will be a money losing albatross worse than it already is.
I think there will be a lockout over the next few months, the workers will be replaced (they can get call center people for less than half the $60k figure quoted in this article), and the rest of the year will be focused on getting the wireline segment in shape to sell. No company in this day and age can afford to pay call center phone people $60k+ and field workers $80k+, especially when you factor in the better-than-market health benefits they get (and are unbelievably fighting to get for free).