New York, May 31 (RHC)-- Some 40,000 Verizon workers have returned to their jobs following an agreement with the company, seven weeks after staging one of the largest strikes in recent years in the United States.

The work stoppage came to an end after the workers reached a tentative deal with the telephone, TV and Internet giant.  Frustrated workers, who will resume their jobs on Wednesday, June 1st, went on strike in April after talks between the unions and Verizon over the company's plans to cut health care and pension-related benefits over a three-year period hit an impasse.

In the new agreement, Verizon has pledged a 10.5 percent wage increase over four years -- up from the 6.5 percent increase that it had proposed prior to the walk-off.  Verizon also agreed that no additional jobs will be outsourced overseas, while more calls will be routed to domestic call centers. This means 1,300 new call center job opportunities will be created in the coming years.

Despite posting record profits in wireless business, Verizon has been losing its wireline customers and to help make up for the losses, it continues to offload some of its wireline assets and workers to countries like Mexico, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic.  The company says it saved $300 million in employee costs in 2015.