Communications Workers

Hoping to get the City Council to recognize their grievances against shipping companies at Los Angeles Harbor, more than 3,000 truckers drove Downtown from San Pedro on Tuesday in an all-day convoy that stretched 30 miles, police said. In what they called a "Convoy for Justice," cargo haulers looped around City Hall with their diesel trucks and automobiles, hoping to win council support in their fight to win recognition as members of the Communication Workers of America.

Ana Hernandez immigrated legally to the United States from El Salvador, seeking the opportunity to make a decent living. She got a telemarketing job at a Sprint Corp. subsidiary in San Francisco called La Conexion Familiar (the Family Connection), selling long-distance service to the Spanish-speaking community, a lucrative sector of the industry.

Each night, auto worker Thomas DeLong leaves his job and returns to a sparsely furnished trailer. His home, his wife and his son are seven hours away. So too is his heart. DeLong is among a growing breed of blue-collar workers who have traded the comfort of family, friends and community for the security of a paycheck. They have become nomads, not by choice, but by necessity.

For 24 years, for half her life, Shirley Armstead has worked at an AT&T service center in the City of Commerce. "I never had to worry about what tomorrow will bring," she said. She does now. Armstead, a metal fabrication technician, is about to become a casualty of AT&T's seemingly endless campaign of "downsizing," an annual exercise the corporation performs in an effort to remain competitive in the post-divestiture world of telecommunications. On Wednesday, while AT&T Chairman Robert E.

American Telephone & Telegraph, continuing its campaign to cut costs, said Thursday that it is talking to its two major unions about an early-retirement program that for the first time would be offered to non-management employees. "We're exploring it right now," AT&T spokesman Burke Stinson acknowledged. "We have a fistful of plans right now but no handshake on any one of them."

New England Telephone Co. workers voted late Sunday to accept a new contract and end a 15-week-old strike. Officials for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said the union's members will return to their jobs today at New England Telephone Co. "We are very pleased that our employees have ratified the contract," company spokesman Peter Cronin said late Sunday.

AT&T and Unions Report Progress: AT&T and its unions reported progress in negotiations, but remaining disputes over wages and particularly health benefits left in doubt whether a new contract could be settled before tonight's deadline. "Things have started to heat up," said Francine Zucker, a spokeswoman for the Communications Workers of America. "I think we're going to get very close, and we may reach a settlement--but that can change quickly." AT&T officials said the company offered to limit its use of temporary workers, a key union job-security demand.