CenturyLink and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 7 announced that they have reached a tentative agreement in contract negotiations. CenturyLink is currently in the final stages of working out an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 206, and expects to conclude those negotiations in the coming weeks.
The new four-year agreement now will be sent to CWA bargaining unit members for ratification votes. The contract covers approximately 12,000 CenturyLink employees in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
“CenturyLink and the CWA are pleased that we have come to an agreement that provides our employees fair and equitable benefits and will better enable us to deliver on our mutual commitment to serve our customers,” said Glen F. Post III, chief executive officer and president.
The agreement covers a variety of areas, including wages, pension and health care benefits. However, throughout the course of the negotiations, the company has focused on three primary goals:
Compete and grow: Provide employees with pay and benefits more closely aligned with similar jobs in their markets. This enables CenturyLink to continue to provide good jobs while allowing the company to compete in a highly dynamic and competitive environment.
Operational flexibility: More closely align work rules and policies with the need to provide greater flexibility to serve customers better. This allows for quick and effective responses to customers and helps meet business demands.
Fairness: Mitigate pay and benefits disparities among similarly-situated employees across the company.
The previous contracts were scheduled to expire Oct. 6, 2012, but have been extended on a day-to-day basis while negotiations continued.
