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Inclusion of Base Wage Hike, Leave Clause Saves GTE Pact

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Times Labor Writer

Negotiators for GTE California and the Communications Workers of America said Monday they averted a strike by 15,000 workers by substituting higher base wages for one-time cash bonuses and introducing long-term leave of absences for employees who need time to care for family members.

The threatened strike, which had been scheduled for midnight Sunday, would have forced GTE’s 4,000 management employees to fill the positions of striking workers to maintain the system that serves 2.9 million telephone customers in Southern California.

A tentative agreement was reached Friday night, but no details were announced initially.

Vote Set for Aug. 3

The agreement is subject to ratification by workers, who will vote by mail by Aug. 3. It would provide workers with raises averaging 11.2% to 12.3% over the 45-month life of the contract. GTE’s previous offer was for 8.8% in increases over three years.

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The union had objected to the fact that part of GTE’s proposed wage increase came in the form of one-time bonuses averaging several hundred dollars a year. Many companies are turning to bonuses in collective bargaining strategy in an attempt to hold down the base wages.

The agreement reached Friday night substituted higher hourly wages in place of bonuses for most categories of employees.

The new agreement also contains a “family care leave” plan in which employees can take up to a year of unpaid leave to care for a child or relative without losing credited service, type of job, wage level or most types of insurance.

The leave plan is similar to one that was negotiated in the recently approved contract between CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and AT&T.;

The AT&T; contract--which included a number of “family issues” benefits that company and union officials said were unprecedented in a major corporate contract--was approved while GTE California workers were voting against accepting GTE’s previous contract offer. The 55% to 45% rejection of that offer set the stage for the threatened strike.

“The AT&T; contract coming out in the middle of our voting caused a lot of (GTE) people to vote no,” said Larry Beall, chairman of CWA’s bargaining committee in the GTE negotiations.

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The new agreement maintains GTE’s previous insistence that workers pay for a larger percentage of health benefits. The out-of-pocket deductible increases to $265 per family member from $218.

Telephone operators, who earned from $6.91 to $12.10 per hour under the previous contract, would earn $7.76 to $13.58 under the new contract. Technicians, who earned $8.26 to $17.01, would earn $9.27 to $19.10.

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