AT&T announces deal with wireline employees

17,000 employees agree to deal that includes wage increase, hike in health care contributions

AT&T on Friday announced that unionized wireline employees represented by the Communication Workers of America ratified a three-year contract that was tentatively agreed to on May 13.

Since the contract terms were worked out, a CWA bargaining committee “spent over nine weeks working with the company’s bargaining team to reach a fair agreement,” according to an AT&T announcement.

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The contract covers 4,500 employees nationwide.

AT&T also announced a three-year deal with a separate bargaining unit, employees of AT&T Midwest, also represented by the CWA.

The latest deal covers 12,000 employees in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Labor agreements covering both groups expired on April 14, the date to which the new agreements are retroactive. The agreements expire on April 14, 2018.

Included is a compounded wage increase spread out over the three-year contract that amounts to an 8.4% increase. Also covered is access to expanded health care plans and increases in employee contributions to health care plans.

AT&T reps said the company is the only major U.S. wireless company with a union workforce. The company has more “full-time bargained for jobs than any other company in America.”

Verizon and CWA also at the bargaining table

Meanwhile, Verizon and the CWA are negotiating a contract covering some 29,000 Verizon employees.

Verizon’s opening negotiation gamut was to offer pay increases, although the CWA called that move a “smokescreen.”

CWA District VP Dennis Trainor said: “Verizon’s claims about the pay increases they put on the bargaining table yesterday are simply a smokescreen designed to hide the harsh reality of their concessionary demands; deep cuts to pension benefits, skyrocketing increases in medical costs and the complete elimination of job security.”