It seems the Union may feel, it has the upper hand in these negotiations. The Union will not budge one inch on any givebacks, and now is actually making demands. Yesterdays negotiations were an exchange of both sides critical issues. The company had returned today with some concessions off their demands which made the case for them moving off their last, and best offer. They felt they had done their part. The Union flat out rejected the offer, and returned with an essentially not one iota of give backs this contract rebuttal.
The Union now feels they have the leverage in these negotiations based on the company's Work Stoppage contingency plans, which they believe have proven to be a failure. It is well known on both sides that the work is not being preformed to any level of productivity, and Verizon is not only losing customers but also any public support for this Strike.
The Union in today's round of negotiations has now actually requested items, and has given proposals that they want. This strategy looks to be the Union is going on the offense. The Union is capitalizing on the recent bad publicity of replacement workers, and actual numbers of losing customers, which has been rumored to be in the hundreds of thousands. That number not only including installations not being preformed, but customers leaving due to poor service.