AT&T;, Unions Negotiate as Strike Deadline Nears

Negotiators for communications giant AT&T; and unions representing 127,000 of its workers said they remained apart on pay and job-security issues Saturday as talks continued in an effort to avert a possible nationwide strike.

But the two sides stressed that the talks, the nation’s biggest labor negotiations of the year, could still result in a settlement before the current agreement expired at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

“They bargained very late last night and were back early this morning,” spokesman Jeff Miller of the Communications Workers of America said Saturday. “That’s certainly positive.”

Union members at American Telephone & Telegraph Co. have authorized their leaders to call a strike.

But the CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents 27,000 employees, had not announced by Saturday afternoon whether they would call a work stoppage if bargaining failed to produce an agreement.

The CWA, which represents 100,000 operators, installers and manufacturing and administrative workers, has said it has several alternative job actions that it could implement with or without a strike.

In the past 20 years, the unions have never agreed to work more than a few hours without a new contract.

Settlements, when reached without a strike, came at the eleventh hour. The current contract was settled in 1989 without a strike, but six years ago, the CWA struck for 26 days.

The company said strike contingency plans have been under way since last summer and call for use of supervisors, retired employees and temporary workers, if needed, to perform essential services.

Key issues in the negotiations, which are taking place at CWA headquarters in Washington, include pay and job security.

AT&T; disclosed Friday that it had offered a comprehensive package that includes pay raises of more than 8% over three years.

The company’s wide-ranging proposal also includes enhanced career development, education, retraining and relocation programs, which its spokesmen said are aimed at avoiding job losses or easing the pain for employees whose jobs are being eliminated by automation or corporate restructuring.