IBEW Reaches Contract Settlement with AT&T

Hoffman Estates, IL -

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) announced that it has reached a tentative three-year agreement with AT&T. The new agreement affects 10,000 IBEW members employed at AT&T in New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, California and the Northwest.

The agreement provides for both wage and pension band increases in all three years for the vast majority of employees. Wages will increase 3 percent in the first and second years and 2.75 percent in the third year. Pension bands will increase 2 percent in every year of the agreement. In the third year, for both wage and pension band increases, there is an opportunity for a cost-of-living adjustment tied to the Consumer Price Index.

Health care benefits remain among the best in the nation, providing for fully funded preventive care and company-funded health reimbursement accounts that can be used toward any eligible health care expense. The agreement also provides for continued good health insurance coverage with some cost sharing.

"IBEW members are a big part of AT&T’s past and present success, and we expect that their value will be recognized and rewarded for years to come as a result of these talks", said Ronald

E. Kastner, chairman of the IBEW’s negotiating committee.

These historic negotiations included workers who were original AT&T employees and remained working for the company after it was forced to divest its original Bell Telephone units as a result of a 1984 federal anti-trust enforcement order, as well as workers of the former SBC. The tentative agreement is subject to ratification by the union membership. The IBEW will announce details of the ratification process in the days ahead.