PHOTOS: Local Verizon Workers Picket Outside Stores

About a dozen Verizon workers picketed in front of a Verizon store on Jericho Turnpike and Larkfield Road Sunday and Monday, as labor contract negotiations for the company's wireline division stalled.

A few hundred feet away, approximately 60 additional local union members gathered outside of a Verizon transportation hub to picket on Larkfield Road.

Clad in red shirts and holding signs with messages like "CWA on strike for middle-class jobs," workers marched along the road, chanting and encouraging drivers to honk their horns in support.

On Sunday, Suffolk Police were called to the Verizon store in the Sears mall after a Verizon Wireless manager complained customers were being harassed by picketers. No arrests were made, and workers were allowed to continue picketing.

The local picketers represent a portion of 45,000 Verizon Communications Inc. workers currently on strike. Contract negotiations fizzled out Saturday night after Verizon continued to demand more than 100 concessions from workers regarding health care, pensions, and other benefits, according to the Communications Workers of America.

Union workers made the decision to strike after it was announced that Verizon would not honor their contract after it expired while negotiations continued for a new contract. The contracts expired at midnight Saturday.

Despite the sudden loss of its existing workforce, Verizon's media relations director, John Bonomo, said the company doesn't expect any disruption in its field- and telephone-based customer service departments.

Bonomo said the company began hiring retirees and training managers to fill those roles when the unions first announced their strike plans a few weeks ago.

"We implemented that plan on Sunday after the two unions called a strike and inconvenienced our customers," he said.

Bonomo said the company is still answering repair calls, performing installations and taking orders, though he admitted the scope of the strike on Long Island is far-reaching, with Verizon garages throughout the region.

"Just drive through any community and we're not hard to find," he said.

Additional reporting by Peter Walden.