AT&T and CWA finalize new labor contract, closing out months of negotiations

AT&T (NYSE: T) and wireline employees represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have voted to finalize a four-year contract with AT&T Southeast wireline operations, overcoming a key hurdle in operating its wireline business.

Workers also voted to ratify tentative agreements on two regional contracts covering AT&T Billing Southeast and Southeast Utility operations.

Running through August 2019, these contracts cover about 24,000 employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

These new contracts replace the existing contracts that expired on Aug. 8, 2015.

In October, CWA and AT&T carved out a tentative agreement representing employees in the carrier's Southeast territory.

Similar to the negotiations between the CWA and AT&T's fellow ILEC Verizon (NYSE: VZ), getting a contract done was anything but easy.

Southeast CWA employees voted to authorize a strike a few days before the contract expired at midnight on Saturday, Aug. 8. Similar to the negotiations with Verizon, AT&T's CWA employees said the company needed to provide better promises related to job security and health care.

In addition to the Southeast region, AT&T negotiated tentative agreements covering nearly 17,000 wireline employees in the Midwest. At that time it also voted to approve a three-year contract for about 4,500 AT&T Corp. employees.

For more:
- see the release

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