AT&T, CWA sign tentative agreement in Southeast wireline territory

AT&T (NYSE: T) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have carved out a tentative agreement representing employees in the carrier's Southeast territory, clearing another potential hurdle with its wireline workforce.

In addition, the telco reached tentative agreements with the CWA on two southeast regional contracts covering AT&T Billing Southeast and Southeast Utility Operations.

These new agreements cover nearly 24,000 employees Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Over the next few days, the CWA will submit the agreements to its members for a ratification vote.

AT&T said that it would comment on details of the tentative agreements until they have been presented to them for a vote by their leadership.

Getting to this point has been fraught with a number of challenges for both sides.

Previously, Southeast CWA employees voted to authorize a strike a few days before the contract expired at midnight on Saturday, Aug. 8. Similar to the CWA negotiations with Verizon (NYSE: VZ), AT&T's CWA employees said the company needed to provide better promises related to job security and health care.

At the time, AT&T said that it would be able to work with the CWA union to come to a compromise on the issues that were of a concern to its members.

Besides the Southeast region, AT&T negotiated tentative agreements covering nearly 17,000 wireline employees in the Midwest. At that time it also voted to approve a three-year contract for about 4,500 AT&T Corp. employees.

For more:
- see the release

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