ATLANTA
- The roughly 47,000 union-covered employees at BellSouth
Corp. have authorized a strike if they can't reach a fair contract
with management, officials said Wednesday.
Key sticking points include healthcare costs and job security at
the Atlanta-based company.
The three-year contract between BellSouth and the Communications
Workers of America expires at midnight Saturday.
While a strike has been approved, no deadline or date has been
set, said CWA spokeswoman Candice Johnson. Ninety-seven percent of
members supported the strike vote.
''I think both sides are working very hard and hope for a
resolution, but we have a lot of ground to cover,'' Johnson said.
There has never been a strike since BellSouth was formed in 1984
after the Bell system breakup, company spokesman Jeff Battcher said.
''We've maintained a responsible relationship with the union,
we're working with the union on finding solutions on the complex
issues that are facing our business, like healthcare and job
security, and we are hopeful that we will reach an agreement,''
Battcher said.
Union-covered workers at BellSouth, which include technicians,
customer service representatives and operators, do not pay
healthcare premiums. However, they do have out-of-pocket costs,
including co-pays for doctors visits.
Johnson said the company is looking to increase union employees'
share of healthcare costs. The union, she said, is looking to
protect employees' current benefits.
The other major issue -- job security -- involves access to jobs
in areas where BellSouth is moving into new technologies. Johnson
said the union wants employees to have access to those jobs and to
have more security in their existing jobs.
BellSouth has reduced its work force from about 100,000 employees
to 64,000 in the last four years. The current total excludes Latin
America, where Bellsouth is in the process of selling its holdings
to Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica SA.
The union also seeks a fair wage increase and pension
improvements. Neither side has publicly released any specifics of
their proposals.
BellSouth Chief Executive Duane Ackerman said both sides are
bargaining hard.
''We're cautiously optimistic that we will be able to find a
solution by midnight Saturday night,'' Ackerman said. ``Having said
that, the issues are difficult. I think we're going to do the best
we can do, and we'll know a little bit more by Saturday at
midnight.''
For a strike to take place, the CWA's executive board would have
to authorize the union's president to set a strike date.
