ALBANY — Verizon Communications workers will picket again this afternoon and are on the brink of a strike less than a week after they backed away from that point as union and management negotiators made progress on a labor contract.

With talks hung up over job security, union officials have set a new strike for 12:01 a.m. Monday. Last weekend, CWA and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which together represent more than 65,000 Verizon employees from Massachusetts to Virginia, postponed a scheduled strike, citing progress in negotiations. The unions’ five-year pact expired Aug. 2.

“We’re ready [to strike], and we’re serious. If we have to do it, we will,” CWA Local 1118 Executive Vice President Len Welcome said.

At noon, Communications Workers of America Local 1118 members will picket outside the telecom’s regional headquarters on State Street, where the union has about 500 members. In the Capital Region, CWA has 1,500 members, including field technicians, accountants and clerical and customer service workers. Regionwide, IBEW Local 2213 has 150 business office workers.

The unions are growing increasingly concerned over Verizon’s increasing reliance on non-organized workers. CWA said the telecom has shed 14,000 of its workers over the last five years by either outsourcing positions or outsourcing them. In Albany, Welcome said CWA is especially concerned about the job security of 300 repair and installation call center workers.

A Verizon spokesman did not immediately answer a request for comment on negotiations.

The last time CWA/IBEW workers struck was in 2003. Organized Verizon workers are not strangers to strikes, as they have engaged in seven over the last 27 years.