Union Ratifies Wireline Agreement in AT&T's Midwest Region

Unionized wireline employees in AT&T's Midwest Region (CWA District 4) have voted to ratify a three-year agreement with the company.


The agreement covers about 18,500 Communications Workers of America (CWA) members in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. The contract expired on April 4 and employees have worked under the terms of the expired contract while negotiations continued.


"We applaud the negotiating teams in District 4 for their hard work in reaching an agreement during tough economic times and a period of significant change in AT&T's wireline business, and we applaud the membership for recognizing it was a fair and reasonable agreement and voting for ratification," said Bill Blase, senior executive vice president-Human Resources.


AT&T said negotiations are continuing in other regions where contracts expired on April 4, as they did in Midwest. They include East (CWA District 1), Southwest (District 6), West (District 9), and Legacy T (CWA ComTech unit). Negotiations are also continuing for Core Wireline contracts with the IBEW for employees mostly in Illinois and northwestern Indiana; those contracts expired June 27. The Core Wireline contract in the Southeast region (CWA District 3) expires on Aug. 8 and negotiations began in that region July 20.


A total of about 120,000 employees are covered under the various contracts.
http://www.att.com