Union Ends SBC Strike, Continues Negotiations
Union-represented employees of SBC Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. local telephone company, returned to work after a four-day strike as the company and the union remained in contract talks.
After midnight Monday, 100,000 SBC employees ended a strike that began Friday, said Candice Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Communications Workers of America, which represents the workers.
“People will return to work at midnight local time” in each of the company’s 13 states, which stretch from Connecticut to California, Johnson said. The strike “was a very effective strategy and at this time we are engaged in very intense negotiations. We’re hoping to move forward and resolve remaining issues.”
She said she was unable to say how soon the union may reach an agreement with the company.
SBC, which is based in San Antonio, is trying to resolve differences with the union over job security and healthcare.
As sales of local calling decline and customers depart for rivals, SBC is trying to slow increases in medical coverage expenses, which it says rose an average 14% a year since 1999.
The union and SBC have been haggling since Feb. 12 over contracts that expired in early April.
Workers in SBC’s 13-state region went on strike after the union rejected a proposed five-year contract that included a 4% one-time payment the first year and a 9.5% wage increase over the remaining years.
SBC spokesman Larry Solomon said that employees started returning to work early Tuesday and that talks were continuing.
SBC, the dominant carrier in California, said the strike by about 60% of its workforce had not affected its network.
SBC also said it had called in extra workers in three Midwestern states where weekend storms had caused outages.
The union, which has not called a strike against SBC since 1983, said the two sides resumed talks at four regional meetings Friday, after national talks over healthcare, job security, wages and pensions ground to a halt last week.
SBC said the talks must produce some cost cuts that will help it fight new competitors, including nonunion cable companies planning to jump into phone services.
The union said it was limiting its strike to four days to minimize the financial damage to SBC while leaving open the possibility of further action.
SBC had said it would withdraw its current offers if the union did not accept them by the midnight deadline.
The healthcare dispute between the two sides centers on how much workers should contribute to the rising cost of coverage and how much retirees should have to pay.
The parties have also been at odds over job security. SBC has said it would guarantee job offers in the same state to employees targeted for layoffs for the first three years of a five-year contract.
