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IBEW Negotiates Contract With Lucent January 21, 2003 IBEW negotiators reached a 20-month agreement with Lucent on Thursday that calls for a two-percent wage hike in June and again in June 2004. The troubled telecommunications equipment maker, which has embarked on an ambitious cost-cutting program, asked for concessions from its workers in an effort to help turn the company around. The IBEW agreed to changes in retiree and employee health care benefits, just as the Communications Workers of America did in a similar agreement earlier this week. "Due to the rising cost of health care, the company was in dire financial straits and on the verge of bankruptcy," said IBEW Manufacturing Department International Representative Troy Johnson. "We had no choice but to sit down and negotiate some changes for the sake of our current and retired members." Changes include increases in health insurance co-payments, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses, and modest improvements in certain dental benefits. The national contract is effective March 1 and expires October 31, 2004 and replaces a five year agreement. Ratification by the 300 IBEW members employed by Lucent is set for February.
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  Lucent Contract Talks Yield No Agreement
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