BY WENDY LYONS
NEW YORK - Members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) across the northeastern part of the United States are getting ready for a possible strike when their contract with Bell Atlantic expires August 8. The telephone carrier employs 73,000 CAW members in 13 states and the District of Columbia.

Here in New York, many workers at the Bell Atlantic facility in Jamaica, Queens, said the main issues at stake are the company's intent to contract out work to lower-paid facilities and threats to the pension plan. Many expressed a determination to strike if the company doesn't back down on its threats.

Telephone operators complained of the speedup and relentless pressure on the job, which has led to many quitting or having to go on stress leave. With management listening in and keeping track of how long they handle each call, they are forced to take one call after another in rapid succession, "without taking a breath" as one worker put it.

Quite a few workers at the Jamaica facility and another center in Harlem identified with the resistance other workers are mounting to attacks on labor. They followed the GM strike closely.

Several took note of the recent strike of telephone workers in Puerto Rico against the sale of the telephone company to U.S.-owned GTE, pointing to the power of a united labor movement that was demonstrated in the general strike that shut the country down for two days.

The last strike by CWA members here was in 1989 at NYNEX, which has since been bought by Bell Atlantic. Some 200,000 workers walked out at four regional telephone carriers in August of that year. The other companies settled relatively quickly, but the strike at NYNEX lasted 16 weeks, and one worker was killed on the picket line, struck by a car driven by a scab.

Bell Atlantic workers in New York and other cities have held "practice" picket lines in the weeks leading up to the contract expiration.

"We have been mobilizing our membership since early last year," said Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1105 secretary Bea Braun. She said every Thursday workers wear red to show union solidarity. The contract covers sales representatives, installation workers, repairmen, operators, and telemarketing representatives.

Meanwhile, CWA members at BellSouth Corp. voted 93 percent in favor of authorizing a strike if there is no settlement there by August 8 when the contract covering 48,000 workers expires. The central issues, according to union officials, include forced overtime, wages, and pensions. Another CWA contract with US West Inc., which covers 36,000 phone workers, expires August 15.

Wendy Lyons is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees. Rose Ana Berbeo contributed to this article.  
 
 
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