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IBEW and AT&T Strike Deal for Workers

October 23, 2009

IBEW members working for AT&T ratified a 3-year contract in late September that guarantees wage increases for nearly 9,000 employees throughout the New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, California and the Northwest.

The contract mandates a 3 percent wage hike in each of the first two years and a 2.75 percent raise in the last year. Pension contributions will increase 2 percent each year until 2012.

“IBEW members are a big part of AT&T’s past and present success, and we expect that their value will be recognized and rewarded for years to come as a result of these talks,” said Ronald E. Kastner, chairman of the IBEW’s negotiating committee and President/Business Manager of Downers Grove, Ill., Local 21.

The agreement means IBEW members will have to shoulder more health care expenses, but the company will cover all preventive care costs. Employees will have the option of using a health care reimbursement account, and AT&T may pay workers a cost-of-living adjustment during the last year of the contract.

Union leaders and management had been in negotiations since May. Employees had continued to work under the terms of their old contract, which expired in June.

The new agreement will be effective until June 23, 2012.

More than 200 equipment installers at former SBC locations throughout the Midwest also came to an agreement with AT&T in October. The tentative contract, which will be voted on by the end of the month, closely follows the pattern set by the main IBEW contract, says Chicago Local 134 Business Representative Dave Rehberg. If ratified, these members will be covered by the AT&T core agreement.

Photo used under a Creative Commons License from Flickr user _Gene_’s