Pac Bell Workers to Vote on ‘Improved’ Settlement

Pacific Bell employees, who five weeks ago rejected a tentative new contract, will vote next month on a renegotiated settlement that includes what union leaders describe as improvements in job security and medical coverage.

Negotiators for the Communications Workers of America, who represent more than 40,000 Pacific Bell workers in California, reached agreement early this week with company representatives on a revised settlement.

Workers will cast ballots by mail or in person on a variety of dates in November. Votes will be counted Dec. 1.

Union members struck for two weeks in August after their three-year contract with the company expired. The strike ended when negotiators signed a tentative settlement, but in a Sept. 22 ratification vote, workers overwhelmingly refused to approve the new contract.

That rejection set the stage for resumption of the strike, but union officials decided that employees should continue working. A new round of talks subsequently began.

The first settlement was doomed by a clause that changed the phone company’s “forced movement” plan to give management more flexibility in deciding how to handle surpluses of workers in various offices.

The new settlement takes away some of that flexibility and grants employees with seniority more power to resist being shifted from one office to another.

The settlement also attempts to reduce potential employee surpluses and layoffs by offering selected older workers the opportunity to retire with upgraded seniority and age credits.

No changes were made in wages. The contract calls for a 9.4% pay increase over three years plus a small increase in company profit-sharing.

Union officials said the company also promised to give the union more participation in developing a “network” of company-approved doctors that is to go into effect in 1991. Workers who use the network would have the vast majority of fees covered by the company; those who do not would face high deductibles.

“We feel the changes in this second agreement, particularly on issues involving employment security, will facilitate ratification,” said Bob Eastwood, the company’s executive director of labor relations.