Lawrence SBC Communications union members picketed Friday in the first day of a planned four-day strike, but officials with the telecommunications company said service to area customers had not been disrupted.

About 20 area members of the Communication Workers of America picketed Friday outside SBC’s offices at 734 Vt.

They were part of approximately 100,000 union members in 13 states striking over health care and job security issues.

The union represents about 100 SBC employees in the Lawrence area. They include operators at the Kansas Relay Center, which provides assistance to hearing impaired telephone users.

The union also represents service workers in the area.

An SBC spokesman said the company had deployed 40,000 replacement workers, primarily managers and retired company workers, to handle duties normally performed by the striking workers.

“Everything is business as usual,” said Don Brown, an SBC spokesman for the company’s Kansas operations. “At this point it is just your average Friday. The network is in fine shape.”

But Lawrence picketers said the strike comes at one of the busiest times of the year for telecommunication workers in Lawrence: the end of the school year, which involves a number of disconnection and new service requests.

“I think people ought to expect a considerable slowdown with connections and disconnections,” said Keith Self, a union spokesman who was picketing Friday.

Brown said he couldn’t guarantee that service calls would be performed as quickly as normal, but he said the company felt good about its preparations.

Don Rixon, an SBC Communications employee, and his dog, Lady Bug, join a strike against the company. They were among the Lawrence workers who were picketing Friday at the company's office, 734 Vt. The workers are seeking better health care and job security.

“I think our customers should expect our employees who came to work this morning to do the job as planned,” Brown said. “These individuals have been trained over a number of months in preparation of this.”

Elsewhere, problems were reported in getting through to directory assistance.

Negotiations between the union and the company resumed Friday after a three-day period without talks. The main issues revolve around health care and the practice of outsourcing jobs to overseas locations.

Self said union members were particularly concerned about the possibility of customer service and technical jobs being sent overseas to be filled by low-paid workers.

“The company is refusing to even address the issue of job security with us, and that is a big issue,” Self said.

Brown said the company was concerned about job security. He said the union had mischaracterized the company’s record on job security when it advertised the company had cut 29,000 jobs during the past three years. He said that number was accurate but that none of the jobs involved positions staffed by union workers.

“They were necessary cuts because of a downturn in the economy and a downturn in the business that we’re in,” Brown said. “We have fewer lines than we did three years ago. We have fewer employees because we have less work for them.”

SBC union’s four-day strike scheduled to begin Friday (5-20-04)

The strike is scheduled to end at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. But Self said that he expected the union to vote to continue to strike if there were no signs of an agreement at that time.

“I believe we’re in it for the long haul,” Self said. “I’m optimistic that we’ll get this resolved, but I can’t tell you how long it will take.”

The union negotiated a deal that allowed striking employees to keep their health insurance during the strike period, but they won’t receive pay.

The union does have a strike fund established that will begin paying members a small portion of their average salary. The fund, however, doesn’t begin making payments until members have been on strike at least 15 days.

Several union members, though, said the financial hardship was worth it, if it produced a favorable agreement.

“It is a short-term sacrifice, but it is for the long-term good,” said Kevin Poole, a union member who was picketing Friday.

This is the first time since 1983 that SBC employees have went on strike.