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IBEW Enters Joint Bargaining
With AT&T On March 11

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) will begin national bargaining with AT&T at 1 p.m. on Monday, March 11, at the Governors House hotel in Washington D.C. The current four-year contract expires May 11.

The IBEW represents approximately 1,000 AT&T employees and will take part in joint bargaining with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) on national issues.

IBEW members at AT&T belong to 11 local unions whose activities are coordinated through IBEW System Council T-3.  Robert Morrison of Local 2222 in Quincy, Massachusetts, chairs the system council and heads the IBEW bargaining committee at AT&T.

Morrison ranks job security as the primary union goal in an industry of rapid technological change and seemingly endless corporate restructuring.  In early February, IBEW forcefully rejected a company proposal to extend the current contract, dismissing the AT&T effort as an attempt to use pension funds to pay for severance benefits instead of using general funds as required under the current contract.  IBEW proposed a no-layoff pledge as a condition for the extension, but AT&T declined.

IBEW has members at AT&T from New England to California.  The heaviest concentrations are in three locals in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Rhode Island.  Six hundred of the 1,000 IBEW members are relay operators who handle keyboarded messages for the speech and hearing impaired.

When negotiations are under way, regular updates will be available on www.ibew.org.