AT&T (T) Southwest announced that wireline employees represented by the Communications Workers of America District 6 failed to ratify a four-year contract. AT&T said it was unfortunate that the very fair and reasonable contract was not ratified, and will continue to work to reach an agreement. The contract would have covered about 20,000 employees in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. The two sides had agreed to start negotiations early. The current contract expires on April 6. AT&T wireline employees represented by the CWA earlier ratified, on Aug. 17, three-year contracts for the Midwest region and AT&T Corp. (CWA Telecommunications and Technology Office); and on Dec. 7 a three-year contract for the Southeast region. These ratified agreements collectively cover about 40,000 AT&T wireline employees.
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