QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I believe history will remember Steve Jobs as one of the greatest innovators of all time, the Thomas Edison of the 21st century one hour payday loan.”
After years of wars, sanctions and drought, farmer Qais Nima Khamis says it’s time to save the dates _ and bring back Iraq’s long-regaled fruit palm industry, which once led the world market.
Khamis, whose family has been growing the fruit since 1880, is growing hundreds of more date trees this year, aiming to double his grove to up to 1,500 palms. The government is taking its own action to revive Iraq’s lost golden age of dates, supporting farmers with loans and launching nurseries.
It’s just a start, said the 40-year-old Khamis, but “Iraq is now open to all the world, the government started some steps and that has brought some hope.”
During its heyday, in the 1950s and 1960s, Iraq was the world’s No. 1 date producer and exporter and boasted 32 million date palms, more than any other nation in the world. At that time, Iraq produced about 1 million tons of dates annually, said Kamil Mikhlif al-Dulaimi, head of the Agriculture Ministry’s Date Palm Board.
But by 2003, there were only half that number of trees and production fell to 200,000 tons. The southern province of Basra was the worst hit by the slump, with only about a quarter of the 12 million date trees it once had.
“That prompts only deep sadness,” al-Dulaimai said in an interview.
It’s not just an economic issue of getting a bigger slice of a date export market that nets big producers like Iran and Pakistan millions of dollars a year. Being renowned for dates is also a point of pride. Like all Muslims, Iraqis honor the date palm as a blessed plant.
It is mentioned many times in the holy book of Quran which, at one point, states that Mary gave birth to Jesus under a palm tree and she ate its fruit to ease the pain of childbirth. And the prophet Mohammed stressed the benefits of dates as a medicine for several human diseases. A date is the traditional way for Muslims around the world to break their daily sunrise to sunset fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
Now, with the worst years of violence following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion over and oil revenues bubbling on the horizon, Iraq has focused on the date industry as one of several sectors _ including oil, agriculture and infrastructure _ it wants to develop.
The government has begun supporting date farmers with soft loans to plant new orchards and subsidized fertilizers and insecticides. It established the Date Palm Board in 2005 with a mission to more than double to number of trees nationwide to 40 million by 2021.
The board has built 30 nurseries around the country to produce new varieties and it has launched programs to rehabilitate old orchards and build processing and storage facilities. It is aiming to develop tree varieties that produce fruit in two years rather than the four or five it usually takes.
The push has brought some progress. The number of trees has risen to 21 million trees, producing 420,000 tons last year, al-Dulaimi said.
“This is a major leap forward,” al-Dulaimi said proudly. “We are reaping the fruits of these efforts.”
Marhon Abid Falih, a date farmer south of Basra, would like to reap some of those profits. But he’s not sure the government can help.
Iraq’s chronic problems over the decades _ lacking of water, electricity, fuel, and storage _ have forced many farmers to abandon cultivation and find another jobs like in the army or police.
In 2002, Falih’s orchard in the Abu al-Khasib area south of Basra boasted as many as 200 date palm trees. He grew fruits and vegetables in their shade, and hired dozens of workers to help him during harvest. The farm made enough money to meet all his family’s daily needs.
But a year later, his farm was hit by drought and its soil grew bitter. Only about 50 trees survived.
“There is no motive to cultivate anymore,” said Falih, 52.
“It’s not a matter of planting new trees or taking loans,” he said. “There is no a longer benefit from agriculture because of the salinity and dearth of water. All attempts are in vain.”
“We will look for another work and come back only when there is water.”
U.S. stock futures are sinking after European finance ministers pushed back a decision about Greece’s next bailout.
European financial officials are meeting in Poland, joined by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The group’s leader said Friday that it will not decide until next month whether Greece has qualified for its next round of bailout money.
Worries about a possible default by Greece have weighed on financial markets all summer. That kind of financial shock might tip the global economy back into recession.
At 7:45 a.m. Eastern, S&P 500 futures are down 6 points, or 0.5 percent, at 1,198. Dow futures are down 50, or 0.4 percent, at 11,325. Nasdaq 100 futures are off 8, or 0.3 percent, at 2,277.
Stocks have risen every day this week, their first four-day winning streak since August.
UBS was under pressure on Friday to explain how its managers failed to catch a $2 billion loss due to rogue trading, with experts calling into question the Swiss bank’s ability to turn around its scandal-hit image.
As police in London obtained a 12-hour extension to question the trader, 31-year-old trader Kweku Adoboli, the bank’s investors and the wider industry wondered about the fallout, both for UBS as a storied Swiss financial institution and for the banking sector.
Commentators and politicians called for senior managers at UBS to take responsibility for the loss, which the bank said could put its third-quarter results in the red. Ratings agency Moody’s put UBS’s credit grade on review for possible downgrade, citing worries over the future of its London-based investment unit.
UBS shares on Friday recovered a fraction of the losses they suffered the day before. Investors took the chance to buy UBS shares cheaply, sending their price up 2.5 percent to 10 Swiss francs ($11.45) on the Zurich exchange by noon. Shares had slumped 10 percent the day before, after the bank said a lone employee had caused the massive loss with unauthorized trades.
Swiss media questioned how one UBS trader could have managed to cause a $2 billion loss without others around him noticing sooner. Respected banking professor Hans Geiger told Swiss television station SF he doubted the lone trader account put forward by UBS.
Police in London continued their interrogation of Adoboli. Normally police cannot hold a suspect longer than 24 hours without pressing charges. But under British law, a police superintendent can extend the 24-hour detention period by up to 36 hours for serious crimes. After that, police would need to get a court order to continue questioning for up to 96 hours more.
UBS spokesman Andreas Kern declined to comment on a report in Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger on Friday, that the entire trading team in London where the alleged unauthorized deals took place had been suspended.
Kern said the paper’s report of fresh job cuts at the investment bank referred to a reduction of about 1,600 posts already announced last month as part of a plan to save some 2 billion francs over the next two years.
The international banking industry has been trying to put stricter controls on its traders in the wake of a 2008 scandal at France’s Societe Generale, when trader Jerome Kerviel gambled away euro4.9 billion ($6.7 billion), and the infamous case of Nick Leeson, who made so many unauthorized trades that it caused the collapse of the British bank Barings in 1995.
Chief executive Oswald Gruebel was brought in two years ago to rehabilitate the bank’s damaged reputation after a series of missteps that included massive losses in the subprime mortgage market and an embarrassing U.S. tax evasion case.
The scandal casts doubt on his ability to improve the bank’s image.
Moody’s ratings agency cited such concerns when on Thursday night it placed UBS’s credit grade on review for a possible downgrade.
Although it said the $2 billion losses would be manageable for a bank the size of UBS, they “call into question the Group’s ability to successfully complete the rebuilding of its investment banking operations.”
____
Bob Barr contributed to this report from London.
A tropical storm watch has been issued for Bermuda as Tropical Storm Maria crawls up the Atlantic.
Early Tuesday, Maria has maximum sustained winds near 50 mph (85 kph) with some strengthening forecast during the next two days.
Maria is centered about 340 miles (545 kilometers) east of the southeastern Bahamas and is moving north-northwest near 5 mph (7 kph) payday loans. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Maria is expected to pass west of Bermuda on Thursday.
Maria’s forecast track shows it curving away from the U.S.
As the world commemorates the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, Sunday is doubly significant for Japan. It marks six months since the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, a date now seared in the national consciousness.
Up and down the hard-hit northeast coast, families and communities came together to remember victims. Monks chanted. Survivors prayed. Mothers hung colorful paper cranes for their lost children.
At precisely 2:46 p.m., they stopped and observed a minute of silence. March 11 changed everything for them and their country.
The magnitude-9.0 earthquake produced the sort of devastation Japan hadn’t seen since World War II. The tsunami that followed engulfed the northeast and wiped out entire towns. The waves inundated the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, triggering the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
Some 20,000 people are dead or missing. More than 800,000 homes were completely or partially destroyed. The disaster crippled businesses, roads and infrastructure. The Japanese Red Cross Society estimates that 400,000 people were displaced.
Half a year later, there are physical signs of progress.
Much of the debris has been cleared away or at least organized into big piles. In the port city of Kesennuma, many of the boats carried inland by the tsunami have been removed. Most evacuees have moved out of high school gyms and into temporary shelters or apartments.
The supply chain problems that led to critical parts shortages for Japan’s auto and electronics makers are nearly resolved. Industrial production has almost recovered to pre-quake levels.
But beyond the surface is anxiety and frustration among survivors facing an uncertain future. They are growing increasingly impatient with a government they describe as too slow and without direction.
Masayuki Komatsu, a fisherman in Kesennuma, wants to restart his abalone farming business.
But he worries about radiation in the sea from the still-leaking Fukushima plant and isn’t sure if his products will be safe enough to sell. He said officials are not providing adequate radiation information for local fisherman.
“I wonder if the government considers our horrible circumstances and the radiation concerns of people in my business,” said Komatsu, who also lost his home.
Another resident, 80-year-old Takashi Sugawara, lost his sister in the tsunami and now lives in temporary housing. He wants to rebuild his home but is stuck in limbo for the time being.
“My family is not very wealthy, and I only wish that the country would decide what to do about the area as soon as possible,” Sugawara said.
He might be waiting for a while. The Nikkei financial newspaper reported this week that many municipalities in the hardest-hit prefecture of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima have yet to draft reconstruction plans.
Of the 31 cities, towns and villages severely damaged by the disaster, just four have finalized their plans, the Nikkei said. The scale of the disaster, the national government’s slow response and quarrels among residents have delayed the rebuilding process.
The Red Cross also expressed frustration over the layers of bureaucracy that delayed distribution of assistance to victims.
“The speed and scope of implementing the response during the emergency phase was not as swift and comprehensive as (the Red Cross) wished, partly due to the structure of disaster management in Japan, partly because of insufficient preparedness,” it said in a six-month report.
Criticism of the government’s handling of the disaster and nuclear crisis led former Prime Minister Naoto Kan to resign. Former Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda took over nine days ago, becoming Japan’s sixth new prime minister in five years.
He spent much of Saturday visiting Miyage and Iwate prefectures, promising more funding to speed up recovery efforts and trying to shore up confidence in his administration.
But the trip was overshadowed later in the day by his first big political embarrassment. Noda’s new trade minister Yoshio Hachiro resigned, caving into intense pressure after calling the area around the nuclear plant “a town of death,” a comment seen as insensitive to nuclear evacuees.
Public support for the new government started out strong, with an approval rating of 62.8 percent in a Kyodo News poll released last Saturday. Hachiro’s resignation will likely translate into a drop and new doubts about Noda’s ability to lead.
On Sunday, he apologized for hurting the feelings of Fukushima residents.
“I continue to believe that without a revival in Fukushima, there will be no revival of Japan,” Noda said.
Regardless of politics, what’s clear is that the road ahead will be long.
“Given the enormous scale of the destruction and the massive area affected, this will be a long and complex recovery and reconstruction operation,” Tadateru Konoe, the Red Cross president, said in a statement. “It will take at least five years to rebuild, but healing the mental scars could take much longer.”
After more than a year, Peabody Energy’s dogged pursuit of a major Australian coal company now appears to have succeeded.
Spurning earlier offers from St. Louis-based Peabody, the board of directors at Macarthur Coal Ltd. announced this morning that it would recommend that shareholders accept a sweetened $5.2 billion bid from Peabody and its partner ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker.
The deal gives Peabody Energy Corp. and its minority partner control of the world’s biggest maker of pulverized coal used by steelmakers. It also expands Peabody’s coal output in Australia, the world’s largest coal-exporting nation.
“This is a major step forward in our acquisition process,” Peabody Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gregory H. Boyce said in a press release. “We are pleased to have Macarthur, Peabody and ArcelorMittal moving forward together to urge shareholders to accept this attractive premium.”
Peabody, the biggest U.S. coal miner, and ArcelorMittal raised their bid to 16 Australian dollars a share from 15.50 Australian dollars, which now values the company at 4.8 billion Australian dollars, or $5.2 billion. The offer is 44 percent more than the stock’s close before the initial bid July 11.
The market for coking coal is increasingly lucrative. Credit Suisse Group AG in July raised its price forecasts for coking coal by an average 15 percent for 2014 to 2018, citing “unrelenting” demand. Prices rose 47 percent to a record $330 a ton for three-month contracts starting April 1 and have traded close to records.
The chase began on March 30, 2010, when the St. Louis-based coal company offered to buy the Australian company for $3 billion. Eventually, Peabody offered as much as $3.8 billion before it was turned away after a two-month pursuit.
However, Peabody was not to be deterred. Last month, the St. Louis-based company teamed up with ArcelorMittal, which owns 16 percent of Macarthur. The two companies, through a jointly owned venture, offered 15.50 Australian dollars for each Macarthur share.
When the board rejected that offer three weeks ago, the two companies threatened to take the offer directly to shareholders.
WHITE KNIGHT?
After receiving the Peabody-ArcelorMittal bid, Macarthur began talks with other possible suitors in the hopes of finding a white knight.
Macarthur’s board said it accepted the 16 Australian dollar offer in the absence of any competing bids that were superior.
“In the period since the initial offer, a number of parties have conducted due diligence,” the company said in the statement. “Although it remains possible that a superior proposal might be made, none have emerged to date, and there can be no assurances that any will emerge.”
Anglo American Plc is exploring a bid for Macarthur, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Teck Resources Ltd. and Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. may also be interested, the Australian Financial Review said in its Street Talk column last month, without citing anyone.
However, Macarthur’s shares rose to as much as 15.94 Australian dollars this morning, indicating investors don’t yet expect any counterbid.
Peabody and ArcelorMittal have the right to match any competing offer, and Macarthur faces a breakup fee of 48.3 million Australian dollars under the terms of the agreement.
The bid is being made through PEAMCoal Pty, a venture 60 percent owned by Peabody and 40 percent owned by Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal.
The Peabody group’s bid for Macarthur will be the second-largest coal takeover this year, second only to Alpha Natural Resources Inc.’s $7.1 billion purchase of Massey Energy Co. in June. This year has yielded about 50 coal transactions globally, with a combined value of more than $20 billion.
Police on Sunday arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder of two Metropolitan Police officers during the height of the London riots earlier in August.
The suspect, who has not been named, is suspected of taking part in the early morning attack that left two policemen hospitalized with knee, leg and shoulder injuries.
The officers, who were chasing looters leaving a The Aristocrats clothing store in northeast London, came under direct attack when a green Citroen was driven directly at them at high speed.
One of the policemen was hit so hard that his body armor came off.
The two officers are now recovering from their injuries at their homes.
The incident happened at 1 a.m. on Aug. 8, the second night of rioting and looting that hit London and other British cities in the worst urban violence in several decades.
Police said the suspect is in custody after being arrested Sunday. Another suspect was arrested earlier and set free on bail as investigations continue.
U.K. police have arrested more than 3,000 people over riots that erupted in north London and flared for four nights across the capital and other English cities.
Round a bend in Cambodia’s Tatai River and the virtual silence of a tropical idyll turns suddenly into an industrial nightmare.
Lush jungle hills give way to a flotilla of dredgers operating 24 hours a day, scooping up sand and piling it onto ocean-bound barges. The churned-up waters and fuel discharges, villagers say, have decimated the fish so vital to their livelihoods. Riverbanks are beginning to collapse, and the din and pollution are killing a promising ecotourism industry.
What is bad news for the poor, remote Tatai community is great tidings for Singapore, the wealthy city-state that is expanding its territory by reclaiming land from the sea. Sand from nearby countries is the prime landfill and also essential building material for Singapore’s spectacular skyline.
As more countries ban its export to curb environmental damage _ entire Indonesian islands have been all but wiped off the map _ suppliers to Singapore scour the region for what still can be obtained, legally or not. Cambodia, a poor country where corruption is rife and laws are often flouted, is now the No. 1 source.
Singapore is by no means the only nation taking part in what is a global harvest of sand from beaches, rivers and seabeds. Officials and environmentalists from China to Morocco have voiced concern and urged curbs. As construction booms in emerging economies and more sources dry up, however, exploitation of the remaining ones is likely to intensify.
Sand mining began anew in May on southwestern Tatai River, which empties into the ocean almost directly north of Singapore, across 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) of open water.
Despite denials by the main owner of sand mining rights in Koh Kong province, two Cambodian officials told The Associated Press that the sand is destined for the island nation.
Singapore will not say where its sand comes from; the Construction and Building Authority said it is not public information. The National Development Ministry said the state’s infrastructure development company buys it from “a diverse range of approved sources.”
The mining visible on the Tatai River clearly violates some of Cambodia’s own legal restrictions, not to mention a recent government order to suspend it temporarily.
Vessels of a Vietnamese company were tracked by boat from about 10 kilometers (6 miles) upriver to the Gulf of Thailand, where nearly a dozen seagoing barges, tugs hovering around them, took on the sand.
The AZ Kunming Singapore, a 5,793-ton (5,255-metric ton) barge pulled by the AZ Orchid, was seen arriving empty from the open ocean, its tug flying a Singaporean flag. Both are registered with the Singapore government, which would not comment on the barge’s cargo or destination.
Ships from several countries, including China, were spotted in sand-mining operations in Koh Kong province, where residents joked about going to Singapore and planting a Cambodian flag there.
The vessels included one from Winton Enterprises, a Hong Kong-registered group that was subcontracted to export sand to Singapore, according to Global Witness, a London-based environmental group that published a detailed account of the trade last year.
The report said that miners had penetrated protected mangrove, estuary and sea grass areas, breeding grounds for marine life along a coastline and hinterland harboring some of the country’s last wilderness areas.
Cambodia’s cabinet spokesman, Siphan Phay, who was investigating the issue in Koh Kong, appeared angry that the temporary halt order was being ignored. He described the activity as illegal mining destined for Singapore, a surprising statement given that government ministers awarded the concession.
A police officer in the economic crime division, who demanded anonymity given the issue’s sensitivity, also said the sand is going to Singapore.
Ly Yong Phat, who holds the major concession in Koh Kong, has at times openly acknowledged the Singapore connection. But in a recent AP interview, amid tightening restrictions and mounting criticism, he said his company had not shipped sand to Singapore for more than a year because “our sand did not meet their standards.”
The dredging, he added, was for local sale and to deepen river channels.
However, a Malaysian company, Benalec Holdings, said it was ready to tap up to 530,000 tons for a reclamation project in Singapore from several sources in Cambodia, including Ly Yong Phat’s LYP Group.
Known as the “King of Koh Kong,” Ly Yong Phat is one of Cambodia’s biggest tycoons and a senator with close ties to Prime Minister Hun Sen. His holdings include hotels, a casino and agricultural plantations.
Land reclamation has enlarged Singapore by more than a fifth, and up to 100 square kilometers (nearly 40 square miles) more are slated for reclamation by 2030. What was once seabed is now Changi, among the world’s finest airports, and more recently the Marina Bay complex, which includes a 2,560-room hotel and casino developed by Las Vegas Sands Corp.
Mountains of sand are needed for such fills. U.N. statistics show Singapore imported 14.6 million tons last year, ranking it among the world’s top customers. Global Witness estimated that nearly 800,000 tons a year, worth some $248 million, were streaming to Singapore from Koh Kong alone.
The U.N. figures show that Cambodia supplied 25 percent of Singapore’s imports in 2010, followed by Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines. With its secrecy and lax enforcement of environmental regulations, Myanmar could emerge as a major supplier.
The damage caused by sand extraction has spurred clampdowns on exports.
Malaysia imposed a ban in 1997, though the media there frequently report on massive smuggling into neighboring Singapore. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad complains that sand pirates are “digging Malaysia and giving her to other people.”
An Indonesian ban came in 2007, following years of strained relations with Singapore over the sand on islands lying between the two countries. When miners finished with Nipah Island, reportedly all that was left was three or four palm trees protruding above the waterline. Environmental groups say smuggling is believed to be continuing.
Vietnam banned exports late last year.
Cambodia outlawed the export of sand from rivers in 2009 but allows it from some seabeds. Recently, some government officials said that rivers where seawater flowed into fresh water, replenishing sand naturally, were exempt.
Global Witness spokesman Oliver Courtney said the trade in Cambodia revealed a “mismatch between Singapore’s reliance on questionably sourced sand and its position as a leader for sustainable development.” The city-state prides itself on environmentally sound urban planning.
The dredging of the Tatai River began on May 17 “with a fury,” creating a veritable traffic jam on the water, said Janet Newman, owner of the riverside Rainbow Lodge.
“Before you could see crab pots bobbing in the river everywhere and fishermen going out. Now there is nothing and nobody,” the British woman said.
Chea Manith of the Nature Tourism Community of Tatai said 270 families along the river have seen an estimated 85 percent drop in catch of fish, crab and lobsters and were being forced to eke out a living from small garden plots. Tourists have all but vanished.
Armed with a petition, village leaders, tourism operators and a wildlife group met with Ly Yong Phat in early July. He appeared sympathetic, Newman said. He substantially reduced the dredging and has promised to stop altogether in October.
A subsequent letter from the Minister of Water Resources and Meteorology ordered the LYP group to halt operations temporarily on the Tatai, citing a breach of regulations. The letter was obtained by Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Post newspaper, which made it available to the AP.
Hun Sen himself expressed concern over the mining in the river.
“We hoped that the prime minister’s recent promise to review the impacts of the sand trade would lead to proper regulation of dredging operations,” said Courtney of Global Witness. “Unfortunately, the pledge does not appear to have been followed up with meaningful action.”
The mining has continued on the Tatai, and violations, such as dredging closer than 150 meters (165 yards) from riverbanks, were clearly evident.
The Post also obtained a Ministry of Industry, Mining and Energy letter extending LYP Group’s concession in Koh Kong until Sept. 2012.
“We are just little people. We cannot do anything,” Chea Manith said.
Newman sounded a more optimistic note. “It’s my hope that the LYP Group will become sympathetic through this experience of having seen the reaction from people passionate about protecting their environment,” she said. “It would be sad if they just went somewhere else to dump the same on others.”
Thousands of striking Verizon workers will return to work starting Monday night, though their contract dispute isn’t over yet.
Both the company and the union say they have agreed to narrow the issues in dispute and have set up a process to negotiate a new contract. But the talks are likely to be contentious. The two sides still disagree on touchy subjects such as health care benefits, pensions, and work rules.
About 45,000 employees went on strike on Aug. 7, after their previous contract expired. They work in the company’s landline division in nine states from Massachusetts to Virginia.
Verizon says that it needs to cut costs in the traditional landline phone business, which is in decline as more Americans switch to mobile phones. The company has proposed freezing its pension and switching union workers to its non-union health plan, which has higher costs for employees.
The unions counter that the landline business supports the growing wireless business and that Verizon, which earned about $3 billion in the first half of the year, can afford to maintain the benefits in the contract that expired on Aug. 6. They also say Verizon put too many proposals on the table.
Of the 45,000 striking workers, 35,000 are covered by the Communications Workers of America, while 10,000 are covered by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Jim Spellane, a spokesman for the IBEW, said the strike occurred because Verizon “came in with an extreme set of proposals and never really moved off of them.”
But after the 14-day strike, “I think they realized the unions are serious,” he said. “It’s in everybody’s best interest to get back to work.”
Verizon spokesman Richard Young said that many of the benefits and work rules were put in place when Verizon faced much less competition in its landline business. “The contracts are not reflective of today’s marketplace,” he said.
Spellane said that much of the traditional phone network helps support the faster-growing wireless business. And many of the technicians that went on strike install and maintain the company’s new fiber optic network, FiOS, which provides Internet, video and phone services.
Verizon has 196,000 workers, with 135,000 of those non-union. The wireless division, which wasn’t affected by the strike, is mostly non-union.
Nearly 30 percent of U.S. homes have dropped landline phone service and rely on mobile phones only, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
Verizon Wireless added 1 paperless payday loans.3 million wireless customers in the April-June quarter, for a total of 89.7 million. That growth has been helped by the addition of Apple Inc.’s iPhone in February. The company owns 55 percent of Verizon Wireless, with Britain’s Vodafone owning the rest.
Meanwhile, total voice connections, which measures FiOS digital voice connections in addition to traditional landlines, declined 7.9 percent to 25 million. But the company has seen increases of more than 20 percent in customers subscribing to both FiOS Internet and TV services over the past 12 months.
Candice Johnson, spokeswoman for the CWA, said Verizon is asking $20,000 per worker in annual concessions. The company has disputed that but hasn’t offered its own figure.
Johnson said earlier this month that the union’s best-paid Verizon workers get about $77,000 a year in New York. The company puts the figure at $91,000 and said benefits average $50,000.
“These are very important issues” being negotiated, she said. “They are issues that help families ensure a middle-class life.”
While union workers walked the picket lines, managers and non-union employees performed their duties.
Verizon’s Young said the company began training managers and non-union workers at the beginning of the year to prepare for the strike. Thousands of employees were brought in from as far away as Texas, California, and Colorado, he said. They have worked 12 hours a day, six days a week, he said.
The company also used newer technologies to resolve 50,000 problems a day remotely, Young said, such as resetting set-top boxes and routers and testing lines.
Peter Thonis, Verizon’s chief communications officer, acknowledged there was “a little bit of a slowdown” in installing new services like FiOS, but said replacement workers largely kept up on repair work.
The company said in its statement that it will “quickly address any backlog in repairs and unfulfilled requests for service.”
While customers who will now get their FiOS services installed on time may be winners, Verizon’s Thonis said neither the company nor the workers could claim a victory.
“We still have a lot of hard and difficult bargaining to do. None of the major issues that were on the table before the strike, are off the table,” he said.
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AP radio correspondent Julie Walker contributed to this report.
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