WASHINGTON (Reuters) - SBC Communications Inc. (SBC.N) and the union representing 100,000 of its employees reached tentative agreement on a five-year contract after a four-day strike, both sides said on Tuesday.þþWhile the deal provides annual wage increases, a five-year ban on layoffs and the prospect of moving outsourced jobs back from overseas, it also allows the company to increase health-care payments and does not offer new employees the same job security as current workers. The accord, which must be approved by workers, came after the four-day strike ended at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. It ended negotiations that had frayed the traditionally cordial relations between SBC, the second-largest U.S. local telephone company, and the Communications Workers of America union.þþAfter failing to get a contract in nearly three months of talks, the union staged a four-day walkout for members in 13 states, its first at SBC since 1983.þþSBC had contended the talks must produce some cost cuts that will help it fight new competitors, including nonunion cable companies planning to jump into phone services. It sought ways to cap health-care costs it says have risen more than 10 percent a year since 1999, hitting $3 billion last year.þþThe union contends it lost 29,000 jobs over the past three years as SBC's core local business came under pressure, and wanted SBC to guarantee its workers access to employment in parts of the company that are still growing, such as high-speed Internet service.þþUnder the new agreement, workers will receive a 2.3 percent raise on average for each year of the contract, with an additional 1 percent lump sum payment in the first year and cost of living increases in the fourth and fifth years. þþHEALTH-CARE COSTSþþThe deal includes some compromises on health-care costs. Workers will still pay no monthly health insurance premiums for themselves, a key union goal, but must pay a monthly $40 surcharge to cover a spouse or partner who could be covered by a different employer.þþCo-payments for drugs and exams increase, but drug costs are capped at $750 per year for one person and $1,500 per family. In U.S. health insurance parlance, a co-payment is the amount a patient pays in addition to insurance for medical treatments.þþTo offset higher health-care costs, the union said active employees would get $1,000 bonuses and retirees would get $2,500 bonuses. The union also said the company would set aside $2 billion for retiree health care; the company had said it was considering contributing at least $1 billion into its retiree health-care trusts.þþThe CWA said SBC had agreed to bar layoffs of current union workers for the life of the contract, and said the deal called for the company to rehire about 600 workers who had been laid off in the Midwest and Southwest. SBC said the union accepted a company proposal that would guarantee a job offer to any employee whose current job was eliminated, but that the guarantee that would not apply to new employeesþþThe union also said the two sides would work on moving technical support jobs to the United States from overseas once the company's outsourcing contract with Accenture expires in 2007.þþThe company said union workers would be allowed to perform jobs in some growth areas that are considered extensions of traditional telephone work, while jobs in other high-growth areas would be offered to union workers at competitive wages. SBC had said during talks that nonunion cable technicians were paid as much as 50 percent less than similar workers at SBC.þþThe previous contract expired in April but had remained in effect through May 19 while the two sides continued bargaining.þþ
Source: NY Times
