Catherwood LibraryILR School

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communication Workers of America have reached a tentative 18 month contract with AT&T covering 27,900 workers whose current four-year contracts will expire May 12. The IBEW and CWA had rejected AT&T's request to extend the current contract for 18 months, citing massive layoffs in recent years and the existing contract's lack of job-security guarantees and (see WIT for Feb. 13, 2002). The new contract keeps the shortened period that the company wanted due to poor sales, but includes a six percent raise, a $250 bonus, an eight percent increase in pensions, and an agreement by the company to pay 5.5 percent on cash in workers' retirement accounts, without raising health insurance payments by workers or tapping pension funds for severance pay.