IBEW Local 21 (Downer's Grove IL) authorizes strike to preserve health benefits

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/062204_ap_ns_SBC.html




Union authorizes strike against SBC

June 22, 2004 The union that represents about eleven-thousand S-B-C workers has authorized a strike if a new contract agreement isn't reached.

The contract between S-B-C and members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 21 expires at midnight Saturday.

The I-B-E-W represents customer service workers and repair technicians at S-B-C in Illinois and northwestern Indiana.

Another union -- the Communications Workers of America -- staged a recent strike at S-B-C before an agreement was reached.

And I-B-E-W Local 21 president Ronald Kastner says he hopes his union won't also have to go on strike. The union says health care and job security are key issues.

S-B-C spokesman David Saltz says negotiations are continuing, but the company has a contingency plan if a strike does happen.


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June 22, 2004
Local union, SBC at odds
Online petition seeks to freeze rate hikes

By Shruti Date Singh

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local Union 21 has kicked off an online petition to block the wholesale telephone rate hike regulators recently approved for SBC Communications Inc.

The union will ask SBC customers to call on their state legislators "to freeze the recent Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) wholesale rate hike until SBC provides assurances that it will increase the quality of residential and business service and invest in good jobs for experienced workers."

The union plans to send the petition directly to state senators and representatives, and present it to SBC officials during bargaining.

The 11,300-member union, which represents technicians and customer service representatives, is negotiating a new contract with SBC. The two sides are at odds on issues such as job security, healthcare costs and wages. Union members have authorized their leaders to call a strike when the current contract expires Saturday.

A union spokesman calls petition a "strategic move to get the company to get back into bargaining."

"We are asking SBC workers and customers through this online petition, radio advertisements and direct mail, to join with us and hold SBC accountable to making Illinois phone service great again," said IBEW Local Union 21 President Ronald E. Kastner in a statement.

SBC plans to continue negotiations and hopes to reach an agreement without a work stoppage, a company spokesman says.

The union's position is surprising. "The IBEW supported an increase when both the General Assembly and the ICC reviewed and approved one," an SBC spokesman says. "The whole point of a wholesale rate increase is to allow the company to recover actual costs, including labor and infrastructure cost."