AT&T reaches tentative agreement with union covering 8,900 core wireline employees

AT&T reaches deal with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

August 17 /blog.taragana.com

DALLAS — AT&T Inc. said Sunday it reached tentative agreement with a union covering about 8,900 of its electrical workers on new contract terms.

The deal with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers on core wireline contracts will be submitted for a ratification vote in coming days. The agreement marks the third reached with a bargaining unit representing AT&T’s core wireline workers.

AT&T and the Communications Workers of America earlier ratified a new contract in the Midwest and West regions. A total of about 50,000 employees in core wireline contracts now have ratified or reached tentative agreements.

The IBEW contracts expired June 27 and employees have worked under terms of the expired contracts while negotiations continued. Most of the IBEW employees covered under the contracts are in Illinois and northwestern Indiana.

The tentative deal calls for wage and pension increases in all three years for most employees. Wages would increase 3 percent in the first and second years and 2.75 percent in the third year. The agreement also provides for continued health insurance coverage with some cost sharing.

The company said that most of the financial impact of the contract will be reflected in its results beginning in 2010.

Negotiations are continuing in other CWA regions where contracts expired on April 4, including the East, Southwest and Southeast.

A total of about 120,000 employees are covered under the various contracts.

Dallas-based AT&T is the largest private employer of union labor in the U.S.

NOTE: Correction: AT&T labor story DALLAS — In an Aug. 16 story about AT&T agreeing on a new contract with 8,900 employees, The Associated Press erroneously reported that members of the Communications Workers of America had earlier ratified a new contract with AT&T in the West region.