Nearly 1,000 Communications Workers of America members working at Sprint Nextel Corp. went on strike Monday, protesting the company’s calls for benefits cuts in its local telephone operations.

Sprint spokeswoman Debra Peterson said the company would use managers and contractors to prevent service interruptions in the affected areas: Bluff City, Tenn.; Hickory, N.C.; Evansville, Ind.; and Ocala, Fla.

Sprint, which recently acquired Nextel in a $35 billion deal, plans to spin off the local business to shareholders in 2006.

The union accuses Sprint of “demanding contract concessions that amount to an attack on our paychecks,” calling the proposed cuts to health and retirement benefits “extreme.”

The union represents about 3,500 Sprint employees at various local operations. Sprint’s local phone unit has about 17,000 total employees, according to Sprint.