Partial Agreement Reached in New York Phone Strike

Partial agreement was reported Monday in negotiations to end a strike of 40,000 phone workers in New York, the last part of the country where large numbers of local phone company employees remained off the job.

Negotiators for the striking Communications Workers of America and New York Telephone Co. reached agreement on major contract issues including wages, pensions and medical benefits, but called off further talks Monday night, “to give people a chance to look at it with fresh eyes,” said Tony Pappas, company spokesman.

Pappas said the only remaining disputes involved local work issues, although the major agreement had to be approved by officials of approximately 50 locals, as well as the international union. Neither side would reveal further details.

The only other strike continuing Monday involved about 1,000 employees of US West Direct, the publishing arm of Denver-based US West Inc. Phone workers elsewhere in the country had reached settlements or agreed to continue working during negotiations.

Contracts Expired

The phone workers, represented by CWA, walked out Saturday at midnight when their old contracts expired.

Customers had no problems putting calls through Monday, because the phone network is highly automated.

The seven regional Bell companies, or “Baby Bells,” which employ 310,000 CWA members nationwide, negotiated on their own this year for the first time since they were formed in the breakup of American Telephone & Telegraph Co. in 1984.

CWA says it represents 40,000 Nynex operators, installers, clerical and maintenance workers, although the company puts its membership at 37,600. Most of the workers are in New York state, but about 1,000 of them work in New England.

Elsewhere Monday, about 30,000 CWA members worked under contract extensions at Michigan Bell, Ohio Bell and Indiana Bell, subsidiaries of Chicago-based Ameritech.

CWA spokeswoman Francine Zucker in Washington described the atmosphere of the talks as “tough.” She said there was still a chance the union might call more strikes, particularly at Michigan Bell and Ohio Bell.

Management Optimistic

Management was more optimistic, however. “I see no reason why we can’t wrap things up quickly,” John Bruce, an assistant vice president of personnel at Ohio Bell, said in a company statement.

“We’ve been talking again, and we’re still hopeful,” said Phil Jones, Michigan Bell spokesman. “Operations here are totally normal, and as long as we continue to talk, the extension remains in effect.”

Also working under a contract extension were about 9,700 employees of Bell Atlantic’s New Jersey Bell subsidiary who are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.