Tuesday, August 18, 1998

Communications workers strike over overtime, performance pay

By STEVEN K. PAULSON

Associated Press

DENVER -- Angry over proposals calling for forced overtime and salary changes to reward performance, 34,000 union workers in all but one of the 14 states in U S West's coverage area went on strike Sunday against the regional telephone company.

A U S West spokesman said company officials were "dumbfounded" by the strike and immediately sent out 15,000 management employees who have been training to do critical repair and installation work.

Managers plan to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week until the strike ends. They said customers can expect some delays in repairs, installation and directory assistance calls, but there should be little effect on calls going through since much of that service is automated.

The company said vandalism knocked out phone service for a short time to about 1,000 customers in the Colorado Springs area. U S West said wires were cut or circuit boards removed from terminal boxes.

Both sides are now waiting for a federal mediator to call them back to the table, after the talks ended shortly before midnight Saturday.

The mediator, Jim Mahon, called for a cooling-off period on Sunday and asked both sides to re-assess their positions. No date was set for the talks to resume.

Denver-based U S West Inc. has about 25 million customers in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Of all the states in the coverage area, only Montana is not affected since none of the workers there are members of the striking union, the Communications Workers of America.

"Right now, we're dumbfounded. The union appears to be turning its back on one of the largest pay-and-benefit offers in the industry," said U S West spokesman David Beigie.

But CWA President Morton Bahr said: "U S West is totally out of step with the mainstream of the communications industry."

Speaking from Washington, D.C., he said the company "wanted a showdown to attempt to force our members to accept terms that would destroy their working conditions and job standards."

The company said it offered an 18 percent pay increase over the next five years, a 20 percent pension boost, a free health care plan and an average 20 percent performance bonus.

But employees walking the picket lines in Denver said the free health care plan comes with reduced benefits, the bonus pay is not available to all employees and the pay raise won't cover added costs for employees who want to stick with their current health plan. Many workers, they said, are forced to work 10 to 20 hours a week overtime, hurting their health.

Shirley Arnold, secretary-treasurer of Des Moines Local 7102, said managers "don't have the stamina" to replace union employees.

"I understand they're supposed to be working 12-hour days," Arnold said. "I hope they figure out how we feel when we go dragging out and they want us to work two or three hours more some days."

"I think it gets down to family issues," said Dale Feller, a customer service technician and 26-year veteran. "It's taking away time from their families."

"It's all about respect," said May Taylor, a strike captain at one of 12 locations in Seattle. "The company thinks employees are manufacturing units and not human beings."

In Arizona, it took nearly two minutes Sunday to get an information operator. A recorded message advised: "We are experiencing long delays. Please call back later."

As in other states, Arizona regulators have repeatedly fined U S West for taking too long to install or fix customers' phones.

Feller said the proposed bonus plan would only make those problems worse, forcing technicians to shortchange customers. "It pushes people to eliminate the time it takes for maintenance. It pushes people to do whatever they can to get that bonus," he said.

It was the first time employees have struck U S West since it was created in the 1984 breakup of AT&T.

Although two other Baby Bells, BellSouth and Bell Atlantic, reached tentative contracts with the CWA last week, officials at U S West and the union were unable to agree on the company's plan to base salary increases on job performance. U S West is the first Baby Bell to propose such a pay structure.

U S West also was in contract talks Sunday with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The current pact expired at midnight, but the two sides agreed to extend it indefinitely while talks continued.