Verizon offers buyouts to 1700 workers

June 4 (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc is offering buyouts to 1,700 people, or almost 1 percent of its workforce, affecting technicians and call center workers.

The company, which has been looking to cut costs in its declining traditional telephone business, said on Monday that it announced the buyouts to its employees last week.

Verizon, which has about 192,000 workers in total, has been in talks for months with unions for labor contracts covering 45,000 employees, or about half its wireline business workforce. The workers went on strike for two weeks in August last year.