By T.A. Badger
The Associated Press

Tens of thousands of unionized workers at SBC Communications Inc. - the nation's No. 2 local-phone company that serves portions of Butler, Warren, Brown and Adams counties - prepared Thursday for a four-day strike set to begin just after midnight.

The Communications Workers of America, which represents 102,000 SBC employees in 13 states including Ohio, called for the walkout to protest the company's latest contract offer, which the union says falls short in several key areas.

CWA spokeswoman Candice Johnson said no negotiations were scheduled before the strike deadline.

"It's going to happen," she said from Washington, where talks were held for nearly three months before this week's breakdown.

SBC spokesman Walt Sharp said Thursday about 40,000 managers, contract workers and retirees are being mobilized to cover key tasks during the strike, which is to end at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

Sharp said fill-in workers have been training for six weeks to perform technical, customer-service, call-center and other jobs.

"This started out many, many months ago with a skills assessment for employees, many of whom have come up through the ranks, many of whom have experience in these sorts of jobs," he said.

San Antonio-based SBC serves portions of Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin.

In Ohio, SBC provides service to nearly all metropolitan areas except Cincinnati - as well as a patchwork of other counties in the state.

Barring an unlikely settlement, union officers were to be at each of the several SBC facilities in greater Kansas City at midnight to lead employees off the job, said A.J. Villegas, a union staffer.

"The two issues we are doing this for are hometown jobs and health care for all," Villegas said.

SBC has proposed annual pay increases while at the same time it wants workers to make higher medical co-payments.

CWA's Johnson said the company's proposal would increase the average worker's monthly health-care expense to about $70, double the amount under the previous contract.

Because SBC's revenue from its core local-phone service is dropping, the union wants its members to have access to jobs in growth areas, among them Internet support, wireless data service and call centers.