Verizon Communications, the second-biggest U.S. telephone company, extended a deadline for contract negotiations with two unions, averting a strike for now.
Talks were expected to continue through Sunday because "a last-minute proposal was substantive enough to give people confidence to move forward," said Rand Wilson, an AFL-CIO spokesman for the unions.
Members of the two unions - Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - have authorized a strike if the leaders deem it necessary. The employees want to maintain health care and retiree benefits and to increase wages.
The contract affects about 65,000 employees, or 28 percent of Verizon's workforce, in 13 states and the nation's capital.
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