AT&T workers in flux amid talks, unit sale

photo The AT&T logo.

Expired contracts between AT&T and its labor union, the Communications Workers of America, will have little effect on Chattanooga-area workers, the company said.

But the company wouldn't comment on unrelated employment changes resulting from the sale of AT&T's Yellow Pages unit to Cerberus Capital.

"We're not breaking out the number of employees by region, state or city," said spokeswoman McCall Butler.

In total, 8,400 AT&T employees will put away their Ma Bell badges following the sale of AT&T's iconic Yellow Pages unit to Cerberus Capital for $950 million, according to The Associated Press.

Cerberus will take over management of 1,200 printed Yellow Pages in 22 states, plus Yellowpages.com and a mobile app. In total, it's a business unit that generated about 3 percent, or $3.3 billion, of AT&T's overall revenue in 2011.

Officials were more forthcoming on the company's ongoing union negotiations, which continued through the weekend, a spokesman said.

Negotiators failed to agree to a new contract for wireline workers by the Saturday deadline, but only a dozen of AT&T's 5,500 Tennessee workers are affected by the expiration of the contract ,said AT&T spokesman Marty Richter.

AT&T is operating under about 30 union contracts, of which four have expired. Of those four contracts, a single contract affects workers in the Chattanooga area.

"We're committed to continuing to work together with the union to bargain a contract that will allow us to continue to provide and protect high quality middle class careers for our employees," Richter said.

The average AT&T wireline network technician in these contracts makes $133,000 in wages and benefits, and the average AT&T call center worker makes $107,000.

The average wage for all workers in the U.S. was about $41,000 in 2010, according to the Social Security Administration.

Nationwide, about 55 percent of AT&T's 256,000 workers are unionized, but just 40,000 workers are affected by the ongoing negotiations.

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