AT&T, CWA reach tentative 3-year agreement with Southeast wireline workers

AT&T (NYSE: T) on Friday hammered out a tentative labor agreement with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 3 in ongoing contract negotiations with wireline workers in its Southeast territory.

Covering more than 22,000 wireline employees in nine Southern states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, the three-year agreement will be submitted to CWA members for a ratification vote this week.

The union and AT&T returned to negotiating table to reach this new labor agreement after the union could not finalize a new core wireline contract for workers in the Southeast region in August.

Under the terms of this tentative agreement, most of the CWA workers covered under this contract would get general wage increases: 2.25 percent the first year, 2.75 percent the second year and 3 percent the third year. Other provisions in the new contract include a 1 percent pension band increase in each year of the contract for most employees and an upgrade of service technicians and outside plant technicians to a new wage scale. Finally, the contract will expand a guaranteed job offer provision that provides surplused employees a job opportunity with the telco, and will increase employee contributions to its health care plan.

Outside of the Southeast, CWA-represented employees ratified three-year contracts covering 19,000 wireline employees in the telco's Midwest region and, in late September, two smaller contracts with the CWA covering about 400 wireline workers in its AT&T Billing Southeast and Southeast Utility Operations.

In addition to garnering new contracts with the CWA, AT&T signed a one-year contract extension with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) covering about 7,000 wireline employees in mid-July.

For more:
- see the release

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