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Qwest Communications has reached a tentative agreement with its largest union about a day after a labor contract had expired, both sides said early Monday. The Denver-based Qwest came to terms on a three-year deal with the Communications Workers of America, which represents about 20,000 of its employees in 13 states.
Verizon Communications and two unions representing 65,000 workers who had threatened to strike within hours agreed Sunday on a new three-year contract that provides 10.5 percent wage increases and changes in retirement benefits. The pact, which must be ratified by union members, was hailed as a “breakthrough agreement in many ways” by Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen.
New technologies in Verizon’s future and its contentious past with telecommunications unions are set to collide this weekend as the company faces a new deadline for talks regarding compensation issues for some 65,000 of its workers. The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers on Friday imposed a bargaining deadline of 12:01 a.m. ET Monday.