Phone Accord Reached in Three States

Negotiators agreed on tentative contracts Friday for telephone workers in Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Jersey, leaving a strike by more than 36,000 workers for New York-based NYNEX as the remaining major telephone contract dispute.

Friday’s agreements with the Communications Workers of America, covering 28,400 workers in the three states, came in negotiations prompted by last Saturday’s expiration of labor contracts at the seven so-called “Baby Bells.”

In most cases, settlements were reached before the deadline, or the CWA and other unions agreed to continue working without a contract.

Deadlines Extended

Friday’s pacts ended a three-day strike in Michigan, but workers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania had remained on the job after extending Thursday strike deadlines.

The seven regional telephone companies, formed after the 1984 breakup of American Telephone & Telegraph Co., employ 310,000 members of the union.

The pact between Bell of Pennsylvania and 11,300 workers, covering local work rules, was reached Friday in a bargaining session that began Thursday, company spokesman Miles Kotay said.

Gain at Least 11%

The tentative settlement reached late Friday with Michigan Bell’s 12,600 workers represented by the CWA would increase wages and profit-sharing by at least 11% and as much as 17.27% over three years, company spokesman Richard A. Christie said.

Michigan Bell is a subsidiary of Chicago-based Ameritech.

At New Jersey Bell, four days of bargaining resulted in a tentative contract late Friday for 4,500 workers represented by the CWA, company spokeswoman Karen Johnson said.

There were more talks Friday in the biggest and longest strike, affecting 37,600 workers at New York Telephone Co., a subsidiary of NYNEX, and 1,000 other NYNEX employees in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

No Comment on Progress

Neither side would comment on whether negotiators had made progress toward ending the strike.

Also continuing to strike in 14 Western and Midwestern states were about 1,000 employees of US West Direct, the publishing arm of Denver-based US West Inc. Another 380 workers remained on strike Friday against the Ohio unit of Ameritech Publishing Inc.