For example, more than 30,000 Verizon workers went a year without a contract before reaching an agreement last summer.

But the two sides are gearing up for the worst: Union members are conducting classes in how to handle a strike. AT&T managers and executives are readying to take on blue-collar roles.

Union officials acknowledge that short-term operations would likely run smoothly without their workers, though hundreds of union workers on the overnight shift could walk off the job if a strike is called.

Union officials say the company will need to postpone non-urgent work, such as new installations.

AT&T won't comment on the state of talks, but it says it doesn't expect problems if there is a walkout.

“Preparing for contingencies is all part of what we do for customers,” said Marty Richter, an AT&T spokesman. “It’s in nobody’s best interest to have a strike and we are confident that we’ll reach a fair agreement.”

As the end of the contract approached, workers were aware of job cuts, especially a layoff announced in June. Most of the workers in Local 3204 are older, more experienced employees who remember an earlier era of robust growth in telecommunications.

Their relationship to the company is different now, said Olga Terrell, 43, of Stonecrest, who works in an AT&T mail room. She started with the company in 1998, and her union job helped her put her daughter through college and grad school.

“It saddens me because the company says they need you, but then they give you a hard time in negotiations even to let you maintain what you have,” she said.

The national union has been stockpiling money to help strikers with their bills, but that is, at best, only a cushion, Terrell said.

“A strike is a possibility,” she said. “But it is definitely not good to go out on strike.”

Share of workers in unions, in Southeast

Kentucky: 11.4%

Alabama: 10.1%

Mississippi: 7.1%

Florida: 6.8%

Tennessee: 6.4%

Georgia: 5.6%

North Carolina 4%

South Carolina: 3.6%

US average: 10.5%

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics