US phone union hopes for new strike talks soon

Communications Workers president Glenn Watts said Monday there had been no progress toward settling the nationwide telephone strike, but he was hopeful serious talks would resume soon. Because of the two-day-old walkout by nearly 700,000 workers, Americans making operator-assisted calls or seeking directory information encountered delays, but the bulk of calls, which are dialed directly , went through smoothly. Pickets were in place at Bell System facilities throughout the country.