Nearly 40,000 unionized employees of Verizon Communications went on strike Wednesday after working without a contract since August.
Workers left the job at 6 a.m. Wednesday, as they threatened to do in a strike announcement Tuesday.
The strike, by the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, is the second in the past four contract cycles with Verizon. It largely affects employees in the company's landline business in the northeast, from Massachusetts to Virginia.
A 2011 strike against Verizon lasted two weeks before it was settled with a new contract.
At issue, the CWA said, are reductions in job security, the planned closure of some Verizon call centers, the move of some jobs to foreign countries and to outside contractors and a plan for some employees to relocate for up to two months.