AT&T reaches a deal with union

Tentative agreement covers 17,000 workers, including DirecTV technicians, in California, Nevada.

Telecommunications giant AT&T has reached a tentative agreement with a union representing 17,000 employees, including DirecTV technicians, in California and Nevada.

The deal would mark the first time that DirecTV employees have been covered by a union contract, according to the union. AT&T acquired DirecTV, based in El Segundo, in 2015.

The tentative four-year agreement, announced late Friday, includes undisclosed pay increases, job security measures, retirement benefits and “continued affordable healthcare,” according to a statement by Communications Workers of America District 9 Vice President Tom Runnion.

Union members had been concerned about rising costs of healthcare as well as the company’s move to shift jobs to foreign call centers to save money.

The AT&T technicians and call center employees had been working without a contract for more than a year. The union staged a three-day work stoppage last month to protest the stalemate — frustrating some customers who complained about delays for service.

“I’m proud of their solidarity and of the hard work of our bargaining teams that were determined to reach a fair contract,” Runnion said in the statement.

Union members will vote this month on the contract.

Dallas-based AT&T has been under pressure to control costs as its biggest business — wireless phone service — faces rising competition from Verizon, Sprint, TMobile and cable companies such as Comcast.

“We strive in all of our labor negotiations to reach fair agreements that will allow us to continue to provide solid union careers with excellent wages and benefits, and we believe that’s the case with this agreement,” AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said in an email.

The company now will focus on negotiating with a separate bargaining unit of the union, which covers 21,000 technicians and call center employees nationwide who work in the wireless phone division.

That group voted in early February to authorize a strike if they could not come to terms on a new deal.