Women’s Wages an Issue as Phone Talks Continue

Most striking telephone workers across the nation continued negotiations or have “stopped the clocks” after the initial walkout by nearly 68,700 workers Sunday, and a union spokeswoman said the union will use the dispute to push for fair wages for women.

The strike deadline shortly before midnight Saturday passed with negotiations continuing on more than 40 different contracts at five bargaining tables. The main disagreements are over wages, medical plans, differential payments and job security.

Tentative settlements or agreements to extend the deadline, or “stop the clock,” made it possible for about 130,000 workers to remain on the job.

The job action against the regional telephone companies, the offspring of the Jan. 1, 1984, breakup of the Bell System, affected employees represented by the Communications Workers of America. In June, the CWA struck American Telephone & Telegraph Co. for four weeks before reaching a new contract.

About 38,900 workers struck Bell’s NYNEX, which serves Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and New York. A union spokeswoman said negotiations had resumed late Sunday night.

In the U.S. West region, negotiators representing 10,700 striking workers announced a tentative contract Sunday night with Northwestern Bell, covering Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. Another 18,800 Mountain Bell workers were on strike in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

An Ohio Bell spokesman said bargaining sessions would resume today between representatives of the CWA and Ameritech, which serves Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin, where a strike was postponed for 24 hours. The CWA and Illinois Bell, which postponed a strike for 48 hours in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, reached tentative agreement Sunday.

Discrimination Charge

At a press conference in Washington, CWA spokeswoman Rosanne Weissman, noting that the union membership is 53% women, with women making 64% as much as men, said the union “feels that the company has forced an unnecessary strike on the workers by discriminating against women workers.”

“We plan to go on the offensive with women’s groups and with the media to tell the story about what this company is doing,” Weissman said.

She also said customers in strikebound areas should feel no initial disruptions in their phone service with the exception of the installation of new lines, dealing with billing problems and directory assistance.

Bell Atlantic and the CWA settled in Washington after a night of bargaining. Pacific Northwest Bell also reached a tentative agreement with two unions in Washington and Oregon.