NEW YORK – Verizon and its two unions, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Sunday reached a tentative new three-year contract that averts a strike threatened for today.

The CWA calls it a “breakthrough agreement.” Workers will get a more than ten percent pay hike, over three years.  Other issues include health care and subcontracting work.

Some 65,000 workers, nationwide, belong to the two unions

Verizon serves wide areas of northeast Pennsylvania