East Coast Phone Workers Prepare to Walk Off Jobs

Telephone workers prepared to walk off the job early this morning over failed contract talks, possibly leaving millions of callers from Maine to Florida on hold.

Customers could experience delays using directory assistance or making collect calls if the more than 120,000 union workers at Bell Atlantic Corp. and Bell South go on strike. Customer service, including installation, repairs and billing, also would be affected.

The hiring of nonunion workers for some jobs and forced overtime have been stumbling blocks for management and union workers trying to negotiate a new three-year contract, said Candice Johnson, spokeswoman for the Communications Workers of America.

“You’re always hopeful in contract talks,” Johnson said Saturday. “Both sides want to reach a settlement, but at this point nothing has changed.”

Last minute negotiations were being held in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and Atlanta. In addition to job security and overtime, negotiations also were being held on regional issues such as pay hikes.

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The telephone companies remained optimistic.

“We talked yesterday. We talked last night. We talked this morning. We’re focusing all of our efforts on reaching a settlement,” said Bob Varettoni, a Bell Atlantic spokesman in New York.

To pressure the company, workers in the New York area refused to work overtime Friday and Saturday. Customer service operations already were affected; prerecorded messages told callers the system was busy.

In Providence, R.I., local union officials said Bell Atlantic had agreed in principle to its main objective: a no-layoff pledge.

In North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, workers had already made up picket signs and drawn up picketing schedules.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers represents an additional 15,000 Bell Atlantic workers in New York and New England. They also said they were prepared to strike.

Bell Atlantic provides telecommunications, wireless communications, cable and digital TV as well as Internet and data services to more than 27 million customers in 13 states and Washington. Bell South provides the same services to about 30 million customers in nine states

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The Baby Bells have contingency plans to move managers and administrators into customer service positions if a strike is called.

The Bell Atlantic Retirees, which represents about 35,000 former employees, said it would honor a strike and not serve as fill-ins for the company.

Although a widespread telephone strike might inconvenience many, industry analyst Jeffrey Kagan said it would not cause too great a problem because most telephone calls are automated.

But he said a strike could damage the reputation of the telephone companies and predicted that many customers would probably shift their service to another firm.

“In the end, a strike could mean problems for the phone companies and the unions: less jobs because they’ve lost customers,” Kagan said.