Health-care costs at issue in AT&T’s talks with union

The clock is ticking on the current contract between AT&T, the largest employer of union labor in the country, and the 112,500 workers nationwide that are covered by it.

Five of the six regional union contracts expire at 11:59 p.m. Saturday. The sixth — the nine-state Southeastern territory that includes Georgia — doesn’t wrap until August but representatives of the region have been at the bargaining table as well.

“We want to make certain that we had some input into the overall contract,” said Michael Fahrenholt, assistant to the vice president of District 3, the territory of former Atlanta-based BellSouth, which merged with AT&T in 2006. About 30,000 workers are covered by the Southeastern contract.

The contracts cover the workers for Dallas-based AT&T’s rapidly declining landline division. Meanwhile, the company’s Atlanta-based wireless, broadband and video side has surged.

The last time this batch of contracts was up for negotiation was five years ago. It ended in a four-day strike that was seen as a minor victory for the Communications Workers of America. This time, there’s a difference: The recession makes it less likely for workers to walk off the job, perhaps shifting the upper hand to the telecommunications giant.

At issue is how much the workers pay each year in health care premiums. Under the current contracts, they pay 8 percent, much lower than the 20 percent paid by employees on the mobile phone side. AT&T says it wants to bring landline workers’ rates more in line with the others’. Company spokesman Walt Sharp declined to say how much more.

Retirees’ health costs are also likely to be raised.

“We think that’s a fair and reasonable approach,” Sharp said.

Fahrenholt said he expects negotiations to last through Saturday.

“It would appear to us that the corporation is trying to take advantage of the times that the rest of the country is in,” he said.