It’s a strike outcome that’s all too rare these days: a corporate powerhouse forced to drop sweeping union-busting demands by a solid strike of tens of thousands of workers with widespread public support.

The question now is whether organized labor will follow the Verizon workers’ example and once again make the strike a weapon against the employers’ relentless attacks.

The tentative agreement — between thirty-nine thousand members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) on one side and Verizon on the other — ended a forty-five-day strike, with the union successfully holding the line against many of the company’s harshest demands.