An effort by dissident shareholders to get a voice on executive pay at Verizon has apparently generated enough support that the votes cast at yesterday’s shareholder meeting will have to be recounted.

Verizon officials said in published reports that the recount would take at least a week and as much as two weeks.

The AFL-CIO and a group representing retired phone company workers had spearheaded an effort to give shareholders a “say on pay” because they believe Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg was overpaid during a period in which Verizon’s stock was languishing.

The unions had claimed Seidenberg made $109 million over a five-year period in which total shareholder return was negative five percent. Verizon officials disputed that amount, saying it was twice Seidenberg’s real compensation.

The AFL-CIO named Seidenberg the “poster boy” of its PayWatch campaign, an effort that in the past has successfully targeted CEOs of Home Depot and Pfizer. PayWatch is intended to make the public more aware of CEO compensation, union officials said.

Verizon officials maintain Seidenberg’s pay is in line with the company’s performance. In an employee e-mail, the company said that among 58 companies with more than $20 billion in revenue that have recently filed proxies, Verizon is 11^th in revenue, 17^th in net income, 16^th in market capitalization, 10^th in total shareholder return and 26^th in CEO compensation