telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) (05/29/89)
AT&T and its major unions, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America, announced agreement on a new contract Sunday that both sides said provided a radical change in family care benefits. A tentative contract was announced late Saturday night, just minutes before the strike deadline. With the major difference of health care being resolved, negotiators for both sides agreed to extend the old contract on a day by day basis, to give them time to resolve several minor issues. The new three year contract covers 135,000 members of the CWA and 40,000 members of the IBEW, who bargained jointly with AT&T. CWA President Morton Bahr, speaking on behalf of both unions shortly after the final agreement was reached, called the new contract 'an unprecedented breakthrough in labor-management relations with respect to family care.' AT&T Vice President Raymond Williams agreed, saying, "This contract is the most progressive ever negotiated by AT&T." AT&T went into the negotiations April 2 wanting to share some of its health coverage costs with union members. It said health coverage for employees was costing one billion dollars per year. The plan finally agreed upon does not shift any of the cost to employees. The new agreement also contains innovative provisions on child care and care for elderly parents, as well as improving pay and profit-sharing plans. An AT&T employee is now paid an average of $500 per week. The new contract will give them a lump sum payment ranging from 4 percent to 8 percent, with annual increases from 2.25 percent to 3.5 percent, based on skill levels. Bahr noted that AT&T Chairman Bob Allen had said a company goal was to prove that a unionized telecommunications firm could compete against non-union firms, and the agreement was a response to that. AT&T's two major competitors in the long-distance calling business, MCI and Sprint are both non-union, as is its rival in computers, International Business Machines. The new agreement also provides one-year unpaid leave for newborn or adopted children and improved benefits for those persons on leave. Only time will tell what effect all these changes have on rate-payers across the country. If AT&T can buffer these additional expenses without any impact on the costs passed along to customers, all well and good. Supposedly, according to Morton Bahr, they can do so. Patrick Townson
df@cbnewsh.att.com (david.fischer) (05/31/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0178m01@vector.dallas.tx.us>, telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) writes: > The new agreement also provides one-year unpaid leave for newborn or adopted > children and improved benefits for those persons on leave. Gee I think one year is a bit much for a newborn. I say make them come in at six months, when they can be productive. :-) :-) :-) -- the grass aint greener || Dave Fischer the wine aint sweeter || att!hound!dfis either side of the hill || or (on arpanet) dfis@hound.ATT.COM || or various combinations of the above Moderator's Humble Note: Touche! That'll teach me to take AT&T news releases and print them without correcting their grammar and syntax. Issue 182 will be released in about one hour, with a special report on new legislation intended to ban the sale of 'beepers' to minors. PT]