Accord Ends New England Phone Strike

New England Telephone Co. workers voted late Sunday to accept a new contract and end a 15-week-old strike.

Officials for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said the union’s members will return to their jobs today at New England Telephone Co.

“We are very pleased that our employees have ratified the contract,” company spokesman Peter Cronin said late Sunday. The contract vote was held at union locals in New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine, with the results being tallied in Maine.

About 18,000 IBEW workers have been on strike since Aug. 6 against New England Telephone, a subsidiary of Nynex Corp.

About 40,000 Nynex workers in New York also have been on strike, but talks broke off this weekend between the phone company and the Communications Workers of America, which represents the New York employees.

Nynex had resolved the larger, regional issues with the unions last week, covering wages and benefits. But the unions then had to negotiate local contract issues.

At first official count, striking IBEW members voted 7 to 1 in favor of both regional and local packages, said George Nadeau, chairman of the T6 Council in Maine, the administrative branch of the 10 regional locals.

“Both have been accepted on a comfortable margin,” said Nadeau following the final tally Sunday night.

On Saturday, negotiators for New England Telephone and the IBEW announced they would send out for ratification a proposed contract covering both the regional NYNEX and local agreements.

But union officials in Boston opposed the move, saying they were unhappy with the proposed settlement of local issues.

A key dispute with New England Telephone was the company’s use of outside contractors to perform certain jobs.