VENICE — Repair workers contracted by Verizon staged a pre-work picketing demonstration today in front of their main yard on U.S. 41 near Center Road in Venice to protest the company's service policies.

At issue was the workers' concerns about the level of service Verizon provides its customers. Picketers claimed the company devotes too many of its resources to selling products and services rather than addressing customer problems.

The workers' largest gripe with Verizon was in the company's desire to focus on the installation of fiber optics rather than deal with problems related to older, copper-based phone systems.

A typical example given by the picketers was the fact many customers currently wait up to 10 days to get their phone lines repaired. In addition, if there is a problem as simple as static on the line, customers could wait up to 15 days for repairs.

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