SBC Communications Inc. and the union for 100,000 of the telephone company's workers are scheduled to resume formal contract talks today, but both sides seem unwilling to compromise on issues of healthcare benefits and job security. The company wants union members to start shouldering more of their healthcare costs and the union is insisting that SBC reduce the number of jobs it shifts overseas. A Friday strike deadline has been set, but a spokeswoman for the union said that as long as negotiations continued to move forward union members would continue working.
See "Baby Bell, Union Far Apart Amid Strike Talk", James S. Granelli, Los Angeles Times, May 3, 2004