Communications Workers, AT&T Reach Early Settlement: 2-Year Contract Extension Hikes Wages, Pensions

Washington, D.C. -- The Communications Workers of America announced that in early negotiations with AT&T this week the parties agreed to a 2-year extension of their national collective bargaining agreement covering 22,000 workers. This agreement applies to all AT&T contracts in the United States and Puerto Rico.

The settlement, which will be presented shortly to CWA members for ratification, calls for across-the-board wage increases totaling 5.75 percent in four steps over the two years, a 5-percent increase for both defined benefit and cash balance account pension plans, and improved subcontracting committee provisions, CWA reported.

The settlement extends the current contract, which was to expire this November 8, through December 10, 2005.

Among job security improvements, AT&T agreed that layoffs should not result from subcontracting of work. This applies beyond the specified "geographical commuting areas."

The parties also agreed to negotiate new union-represented job categories for supporting business clients' computer hardware.

CWA Vice President Ralph Maly, who served as the union's chief negotiator, said that AT&T had requested the early talks, and it was agreed from the start that the company would not seek any contract concessions. "In these challenging times with the uncertainty of the economy, our bargaining team felt that negotiating this contract extension was in the best interest of protecting our members at AT&T," Maly said. "It was also important to CWA that we protected all contractual rights. Those rights include health care for active and retired workers, pensions and severance protection," he added.

CWA represents 700,000 workers overall in telecommunications, IT, the news media, electronics and other industries as well as the public sector.

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