The nation's largest corporate strike in four years came to downtown Harrisburg today, as about 100 red-clad Verizon workers walked a picket line around the Verizon Tower at Strawberry Square.

It was one of the biggest midstate rallies to date in the nine-day-old strike by some 45,000 members of the Communications Workers of American and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers from Massachusetts to Virginia.

Verizon Strike 8 Gallery: Verizon Strike

Workers here insist the issues they say they are be fighting for - namely secure, family-sustaining jobs in an ever-shifting economy - have ramifications from coast to coast.

"Most people think this is about our particular jobs, and what we would hope not to lose," said Bill Cassel, president of the midstate unit of Local 13000 of the CWA. "In reality, it's about the war that has been waged on the working-class man, and we're drawing a line in the sand against corporate tyranny."

Verizon workers are well-paid by most industry standards, with field technicians and call center employees generally earning $60,000 to $77,000 a year before overtime. In addition, to this point they have not shared in the cost of their health care premiums.

But workers picketing today stressed they are not asking for more; their larger concerns are battling company efforts to erase prior job security language that Verizon has said limited its ability to operate as efficiently and competitively as possible.

"This is not about the money. They could double our pay and not charge us anything for benefits. But if you're out-sourced, it doesn't matter," said Zachary Straw, a 36-year-old broadband technician, one of many positions that union members said the company has begun to use third-party vendors for in recent years.

"It's about the fact that you've got to have a solid middle class or you will never end this recession."

Corporate leaders, meanwhile, counter that the telecommunications industry has leaped beyond the conditions that were present when many of the old contract terms were negotiated.

For example, spokesman Lee Gierczynski noted in the last five years, the company has seen its number of landline telephone customers drop from 45 million to about 25 million.

"You need to acknowledge that change and adapt quickly if you want to compete and thrive," Giercsynski said. By gaining a freer hand to restructure, he said, shareholders and employees will benefit through a more profitable company.

According to Verizon's own fact sheets, the company - including the nonunion Verizon Wireless division - employs 13,385 in Pennsylvania, making it one of the state's largest employers.