Service Slowed by Phone Strike on Two Coasts

Local telephone service slowed along much of the East and West coasts Sunday after as many as 157,000 communications workers and electricians went on strike at Pacific Bell, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX.

The strikes at some of the so-called Baby Bell companies came after negotiations failed to produce new agreements to replace contracts that expired at 11:59 p.m. Saturday. Pacific Bell serves much of California, Bell Atlantic the Mid-Atlantic states and NYNEX the Northeast.

Pacific Bell customers found direct-dial calls functioning normally, but sometimes encountered delays of more than five minutes trying to reach a 411 operator for directory assistance or 611 operators to report service problems. Long distance service was not affected.

41,000 in State Strike

More than 41,000 Communications Workers of America members at Pacific Bell, a subsidiary of Pacific Telesis, had vowed not to extend their expiring contract--and not to work without a new one. When negotiations in Oakland failed to produce a tentative agreement, union members walked off their jobs at midnight as promised.

The striking workers include operators, service representatives, business office employees, equipment repairers and communications technicians.

Picketing was minimal in Southern California on Sunday, but Barbara Whitfield, a CWA strike coordinator in Los Angeles, predicted that activity will expand today.

“We’ll be picketing at 100% on Monday,” she said.

Pacific Bell spokeswoman Kathleen Flynn attributed some of the service delays to time needed to increase the ranks of management employees filling union jobs at key facilities. For example, the company flew 350 Northern California managers to Orange County on Sunday, supplementing the 955 managers already working there.

Management officials said they would work 12-hour shifts, but union representatives in all three strike areas on both coasts predicted that service would grow worse after the normal work week resumes today.

“I’m pretty tired right now,” said one supervisor sitting in as an operator in Orange County.

Despite management officials’ best efforts, customers needing operator or directory assistance on Sunday often were greeted by a recording.

“We’re sorry,” it said, “because of a work stoppage the operator will be delayed in helping you. If your call is urgent, stay on the line and the operator will answer as soon as possible.”

Caller Gives Up

One customer said she gave up after waiting “at least five minutes” and hearing nothing but replays of the recording.

Pacific Bell has 9.1 million customers in California, 8.23 million of them residential.

The strike also affected Nevada Bell, Pacific Telesis’ other local phone company, which serves the Reno area. It is using management personnel to replace about 750 CWA members.

Contracts with three other Baby Bells will expire at 11:59 p.m. this coming Saturday. Chicago-based Ameritech, Denver-based U S West and St. Louis-based Southwestern Bell employ 131,000 union workers and provide service in 24 Midwestern and Pacific Northwest states.

The Baby Bells are the seven regional holding companies created in 1984 to take over local telephone operations from American Telephone & Telegraph to settle an antitrust lawsuit.

Talks collapsed first at NYNEX in New York, where the last negotiating session broke up Friday and no formal talks were held Saturday. With 90 minutes remaining before the Saturday midnight deadline, CWA and International Brotherhood of Electricians leaders in New York issued the walk-out order to their 60,000 members.

About 40 minutes later--less than an hour before the deadline--a tentative settlement was announced at Atlanta-based BellSouth, averting a walkout in nine Southeastern states where the company’s subsidiaries provide local telephone service.

Negotiations Collapse

Negotiations continued beyond the midnight deadline with Bell Atlantic, which employs 41,000 CWA members in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia. Those talks ended shortly before 7 a.m. Sunday, however, and union workers immediately walked out.

According to the CWA, the crucial sticking points with Bell Atlantic center on health benefits and wages, although a wide variety of local problems also remain to be solved at all three companies.

The phone companies had refused to discuss their contract proposals before Sunday when NYNEX issued a three-page summary of its offer. Pacific Bell followed with a two-page outline of what it called its “generous” latest offer.

“Generous” was far from the union’s view, said Vira Milirides, a spokeswoman at CWA regional headquarters in Burlingame. “We were optimistic at the outset because we thought we were dealing with a profitable company,” she said, “but Pacific Bell is behaving more like a company with financial problems.”

Pacific Bell contributed virtually all of Pacific Telesis’ $1.188 billion in profits last year and $8.75 billion of the parent’s $9.48 billion in total revenue. That ranked Pacific Telesis first this year among California’s biggest service companies as ranked by The Times 100 listings of leading companies in the state.

Ahead of All Utilities

The firm was ahead of such giants as Transamerica and all the other utilities in the state, including Pacific Gas & Electric, SCEcorp, parent of Southern California Edison, and Southern California Gas Co.’s parent, Pacific Enterprises.

Informal talks continued Sunday between Pacific Bell, Nevada Bell and union officials, and both sides said negotiations will go on as long as there is progress. Neither side would estimate how long the strike might last.

No negotiations were scheduled with NYNEX or Bell Atlantic.

Gary McBee, a Pacific Bell executive vice president, said the company proposed a wage increase averaging 10.93% over three years and promotions for 9,156 of the CWA-represented workers, including 6,300 operators and 2,400 clerical employees. McBee said “an improved medical plan” offered increased benefits and would not, he said, “require employee contributions to premiums.” He called that “a major concession to the union.”

Jessie Wilson, president of CWA Local 9415 in Northern California, expressed surprise at Pacific Bell’s description of its proposals. “I have never seen anything like that,” Wilson said. “Otherwise our people wouldn’t be out there in the street.”

Other Cost Shifts?

Despite McBee’s assurance that Pacific Bell employees would not share in premium costs, the CWA maintains that the company wants to make other cost shifts in the plan that are not justified by increased company health costs.

Current pay for Los Angeles workers ranges from $465.50 a week for operators to $654.50 for skilled technicians. Pacific Bell has 62,000 employees in California, 15,000 of them in Los Angeles.

For its part, NYNEX called its proposal “responsive and progressive,” saying it includes “a substantial wage increase, dramatic pension improvements and an expanded choice of health-care coverage.”

But a CWA negotiator there said NYNEX’s refusal to drop its requirement “that employees pick up a portion of the health-care premium” kept talks from developing “into full, well-rounded discussions.”

THE PACIFIC BELL STRIKE Who’s On Strike: More than 41,000 members of the Communication Workers of America walked off the job at 11:59 p.m. Saturday when their three-year contract expired. Besides Pacific Bell, the CWA also struck Pacific Telesis’ other local phone company, Nevada Bell, which serves the Reno area.

Key Issues: Sharing the costs of health benefits, higher wages to reflect improved productivity and revision of pay scales to reduce the gap in compensation between highest-paying jobs, which are dominated by men, and the lowest-paying jobs--such as operators--most of which are held by women.

Effect on Phone Service: Little or none on direct-dial calls but delays in reaching operators, directory assistance and to report service failures. Repair and installation services likely to be delayed. Teams of management personnel have assumed jobs normally handled by CWA members.