Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 7, 1995                   TAG: 9508070085
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SHANNON D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PHONE TALKS STILL FAR FROM ACCORD

The two groups negotiated for about an hour before they recessed again until today, said Paul Miller, spokesman for Bell Atlantic.

But they still are far from reaching an agreement over wages, job security and health care cost-shifting, said Larry Akers, president of Roanoke CWA, which covers workers from Roanoke to the Kentucky border.

"It's my impression that [on these issues] we're not close," he said.

But Akers said the outlook is positive because the groups are still negotiating. "Any time there is talking, that's good," he said.

A strike that would include about 875 Bell Atlantic union workers in Southwest Virginia was averted Saturday night when CWA and the phone company postponed talks until Sunday.

Bell Atlantic invited union workers to continue working under the same pay rates but without a contract, which expired Saturday night.

Bell Atlantic decided not to extend the expired contract, Akers said, but the company "would not stop the clock" and "would not lock us out."

Three other phone companies also negotiating with CWA - Ameritech, BellSouth and Pacific Telesis - reached an agreement with the union for contract extensions.

Priority issues for all companies include access by union members to new jobs within the companies, guarantees that those jobs would be union, wages, the use of subcontractors and shifting health care costs.

``We will see if the company is willing to share some of the rewards that the employees have helped make possible," Akers said Sunday. ``I don't understand how a company can make record profits and not be willing to take the workers' needs into consideration.''