GTE Telephone Strike Averted

A threatened strike by 15,000 GTE California employees has been averted with an agreement reached Friday evening, a spokeswoman for the telephone company said.

Stephanie Bradfield, public affairs director for GTE, said details of the agreement with the Communication Workers of America, the employees’ union, will be announced in a few days.

The workers’ contract expired last March 7, and negotiations had stalled this week over salary increases and medical benefits. The threatened strike, called for midnight Sunday, could have affected 2.9 million telephone customers from Santa Barbara to San Bernardino.