AT&T;, Union Continue Contract Talks : Labor: The company says it has contingency plans in case there is a strike.

American Telephone & Telegraph Co., and its unions resumed contract talks Monday, working past a strike deadline, and the company said both sides had agreed to continue negotiating as long as progress is being made.

Job security, wages and pensions were the issues in the talks between AT&T; and the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Both sides were working past a strike deadline to try to avert a nationwide walkout by about 127,000 employees.

CWA and IBEW members had given their negotiators authority to call a strike if no contract was reached by the deadline of midnight Saturday. But since progress was being made, the two sides decided to continue negotiations and work past the deadline.

They met all day Sunday and into early Monday before adjourning until mid-morning.

AT&T; spokesman Herb Linnen said the two sides had “agreed to continue talking as long as progress was being made.” He did not elaborate.

The company,the nation’s biggest long-distance provider, said it had contingency plans to run its highly automated telecommunications network in case of a strike by using active and retired management and hiring temporary workers.

CWA officials said they too had contingency plans to implement with or without a strike, including an “electronic picket line”-a union-led campaign to urge an international boycottof AT&T; services.

They did not disclose any other possible strike actions.

A new contract was reached three years ago without a strike,but in 1986 the CAW struck for 26 days before reaching an agreement.

Talks on a new three-year contract began March 30, with the CWA, representing 100,000 workers, and the IBEW 27,000, seeking better job security, wages and pensions.

Perhaps the single biggest issue is job security.

Since the Bell system was dismantled by court order om 1084, AT&T; has cut 133,000 union jobs.

It says it needs work force flexibility in order to profit in the increasingly competitive telecommunications marketplace.

AT&T; has 21 business units, including manufacturing, consumer electronics and its non-union NCR computer company, as well as its Universal credit card.