The strike by 39,000 Verizon workers — members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) — ended after forty-five days with a tentative agreement announced late last week. Only partial details are available as union members prepare for a ratification vote.

But strikers believe they’ve won a victory on balance — one made all the more significant by Verizon’s pre-walkout arrogance in its demand for drastic concessions, and also by the widespread support for the strike that clearly put pressure on the company to fold on key demands.

According to a CWA summary of the agreement and other sources, the new contract would increase wages by 10.5 percent over four years. But the unions made a concession in agreeing to larger contributions from workers to pay for health insurance that will eat into the wage increase.