NEW YORK (AP) — Union contracts for thousands of AT&T workers expired at midnight, but officials said early Sunday that talks were continuing.
NEW YORK (AP) — Union contracts for thousands of AT&T workers expired at midnight, but officials said early Sunday that talks were continuing.
The passage of the deadline left the Communications Workers of America free to call a strike, but spokeswoman Candice Johnson says employees would report for work without a contract. She says that could change at any time.
Three separate contracts in eastern and Midwestern areas covering about 25,000 workers expired at midnight, while the midnight deadline was approaching for 18,000 other workers on the West Coast.
At issue in the negotiations are job protection clauses and health care premiums and co-payments.
The workers are on the shrinking local-phone and long-haul data side of the business.
During negotiations three years ago, the parties kept talking past the contract expiration, and reached agreements without a strike.
Dallas-based AT&T Inc. is the country’s largest employer of unionized workers. About 140,000 of its 256,000 employees are union members.