AT&T and union district reach tentative deal
NEW YORK – AT&T Inc. has reached a tentative deal on a new three-year contract for 23,000 employees in California and Nevada, the telecommunications company said Monday.
The previous contract with the Communications Workers of America expired four months ago, along with other four contracts together covering nearly 80,500 workers in AT&T’s wireline operations.
Another contract covering 23,000 workers in the former BellSouth area in the Southeast expired Saturday. Negotiations are under way.
The contract covering California and Nevada is the second to be reached in this round of negotiations. In mid-July, the district 18,500 employees in the Midwest reached a tentative agreement, which was ratified by its members on Friday.
Details of the proposed contract for the Western district were not immediately available. AT&T has been seeking to have workers shoulder more of the cost of health insurance, something that turned into a sticking point in talks.
The deal ratified for the Midwestern district had the employees paying more in premiums, deductibles and coinsurance, yet CWA said the deal safeguarded core health benefits. It also provided for wage increases of 3 percent for each of the first two years and 2.75 percent for the last.
Dallas-based AT&T is the largest private employer of union labor in the U.S.