AT&T; Talks With Unions Go Down to the Wire : Labor: Negotiators try for a new three-year pact as managment prepares to assume staff jobs.

The nation’s largest long-distance telephone company says management will step into union jobs to prevent disruption of phone service if workers go on strike when their contract expires tonight.

American Telephone & Telegraph negotiators were trying Friday to settle on a new three-year contract with the company’s 125,000 employees represented by the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Members of both unions authorized their negotiators to call a strike if agreement couldn’t be reached by 11:59 p.m. today, when the contract expires.

“Nobody ever wants to strike,” CWA spokesman Jeff Miller said. But he said the union was dissatisfied with the company’s response to concerns about job losses, wages and pensions. The company’s offer of an 8% wage increase over three years was not accepted by union negotiators earlier this week.

Contract talks affect only operations within this country. Service in other countries would not be affected if workers strike.

Company spokesman Herb Linnen said 95% of domestic and international long-distance calls are dialed directly, but an extended walkout could lead to problems getting calls in and out of the United States.

If workers do strike, Linnen said, the company’s contingency plan, under development since last summer, would use all active and retired management to cover union jobs.

He said AT&T; also would work with temporary employment agencies to recruit and train workers, if necessary.

Linnen said another wage offer was being made Friday, as well as proposals for other benefits, but he did not elaborate.

Miller said the union also disagreed with an earlier AT&T; proposal that would require pensioners to pay a portion of their health insurance premiums.

Both active and retired workers now get full company-paid health insurance.

When negotiations opened March 30, the unions made clear that their chief concern was job security because AT&T; has said it intends to eliminate thousands of unionized positions in favor of automation.

The contract covers long-distance operators, technicians who install communications equipment and circuits for long-distance service, customer and account representatives and more than 30,000 people in 18 plants across the country that manufacture high-tech switching and transmission equipment, fiber-optic cable and microprocessors.

Their wages range from an average $379 a week for account representatives to $727 for systems technicians.

William Ketchum, AT&T; vice president for labor relations, said that 4,000 to 6,000 jobs will be cut this year.