More than 1,700 FairPoint workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont went on strike Friday

More than 1,700 FairPoint Communications workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont went on strike at 12:01 a.m. Friday after local chapters of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers weren’t able to settle a dispute with the telco over contract negotiations. FairPoint has been demanding what the unions say is $700 million in cuts as part of new contracts with the workers, including increased healthcare costs, cuts in healthcare funding for retirees and a new salary system that would put all new hires on a lower pay scale (http://bit.ly/104cSdc). FairPoint’s contract with the 1,700 workers expired Aug. 2, at which point the telco said the unions had “dug in on almost all of their current benefits under contracts from a bygone era." After months of negotiations, “the two sides remain far apart on the issues we think are key to the future of the company,” a FairPoint spokeswoman said in a news release. The telco said it has “comprehensive plans in place to ensure continuity of service to its customers” (http://bit.ly/1ugUoxc).