DALLAS, Oct. 18, 2024 /CNW/ — Our highly skilled, unionized workforce strongly positions us to grow 5G and fiber.

Key Takeaways:

AT&T ratifies agreements with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in the Southeast and West, covering about 23,000 employees.AT&T is proud to be the largest employer of union-represented employees in the U.S. telecommunications industry.AT&T’s labor agreements support the company’s commitment to employees’ total wellbeing by providing wages and benefits that are among the best in the nation.

What’s the news? AT&T employees represented by the CWA voted to ratify two collective bargaining agreements. The 5-year agreement with CWA District 3 in the Southeast covers about 15,000 employees who primarily work in technician, call center, machine operator, and other customer service roles in AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, and TN, and is set to expire on Aug. 4, 2029. The 4-year agreement with CWA District 9 in the West covers about 8,400 employees who primarily work in those same roles in CA and NV, and is set to expire on April 8, 2028.

Why is this important? AT&T is the largest employer of union-represented employees in the U.S. telecommunications industry, where more than 62,000 AT&T employees are unionized. AT&T’s high-performance wireless and fiber networks provide a foundation for U.S. economic growth, innovation, and individual opportunity, and AT&T is focused on growing 5G and fiber with a strong union workforce.

“We are proud to support the needs of our unionized employees as they make these connections possible for our customers and communities,” said Jamie Barton, senior vice president of Global Human Resources and Labor Relations, AT&T. “We believe that to be the best connectivity provider, our agreements must allow us to compete for the best people and have the best operations that can adapt to evolving customer demands. These new agreements position the company for sustainable growth and ensure we continue to recognize the work our employees do every day to serve our customers.”

AT&T’s labor agreements support the company’s commitment to employees’ total wellbeing by providing wages and benefits that are among the best in the nation, promoting the physical, emotional, financial and social wellbeing of employees, their families and their communities. These agreements include competitive market-based wage increases that exceed projected inflation, comprehensive retirement benefits, increases in the company’s financial contributions to employee healthcare and wellness, better schedule stability, job security, and more.

Thanks to strong, long-term relationships with our union partners, the company has now reached 18 agreements since the beginning of 2022, including seven contracts ratified this year.

About AT&T

We help more than 100 million U.S. families, friends and neighbors, plus nearly 2.5 million businesses, connect to greater possibility. From the first phone call 140+ years ago to our 5G wireless and multi-gig internet offerings today, we @ATT innovate to improve lives. For more information about AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), please visit us at about.att.com. Investors can learn more at investors.att.com.

© 2024 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the Globe logo are registered trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property.

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SOURCE AT&T

Argos Multilingual today announced the launch of Argos SmartSuite, an integrated set of advanced tools designed to enhance data ingestion, workflow, productivity, and quality. The platform leverages a deeply customizable stack of tools that help clients get the data they need for pre-training, Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT) and Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF).

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Argos SmartSuite represents a significant leap forward in Argos’ data services, integrating and improving upon previously standalone tools to address the complex challenges posed by clients looking to improve their LLMs. At the time of release, Argos SmartSuite includes twelve specialized tools, each targeting crucial aspects of LLM development, testing, and deployment:

General Static Preference CollectionImage Conversation AnnotatorLLM Performance EvaluatorResponse Quality AssessorLLM Export FinderLLM Penetration TesterLLM Threat DetectorLLM Incident SimulatorAdversarial Attack SimulatorPolicy Compliance TesterRed Team CoordinatorPhishing Defense Analyzer

The platform’s comprehensive approach covers everything from basic preference collection to advanced threat detection and incident simulation. It significantly improves upon previous versions, making them readily applicable to the latest LLMs and the evolving methodologies used in their development and deployment.

“Argos SmartSuite is a game-changer in how we work with our clients, and this is just the beginning for us. We have always been creative with tooling and when you couple that with our deep understanding of our clients’ project scope and HITL challenges, we can quickly deploy solutions that achieve unprecedented results for our customers. With 12 solutions released in V1 and another six currently being developed in collaboration with our clients, we are on track to double our solution offering by Q1, 2025,” said Chris Phillips, Chief Innovations Officer at Argos Multilingual. “By integrating these powerful tools into a single, cohesive underlying platform, we’re enabling organizations to build, fine-tune, and test LLMs with superior efficiency and quality.”

Alexander Ulichnowski, CEO of Argos Multilingual, added, “With the launch of Argos SmartSuite, we’re reaffirming our commitment to innovation. This platform showcases our dedication to promoting safe and responsible AI development. We believe it will become an indispensable resource for organizations working with LLMs across various industries.”

Argos SmartSuite is available immediately for enterprise clients. For more information about the platform and its capabilities, please visit the Argos Multilingual website.

About Argos Multilingual

Argos Multilingual provides global language solutions. With over 30 years of experience, we serve clients in the high-tech, life sciences, human resources, and financial industries. We make it easy for businesses to grow globally and connect with expert talent anywhere in the world. With production centers in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, we follow a strategy of building robust programs for continuous translation and localization. You can expect a long-term and transparent partnership, backed by innovative solutions around technology, AI & data, creative content, and quality assurance. For more information, please visit us at www.argosmultilingual.com.

Media Contact

Stephanie Harris-Yee, Argos Multilingual, 1 5303913714, info@argosmultilingual.com, http://ai.argosmultilingual.com/

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SOURCE Argos Multilingual

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — On October 18, 2024, the board of directors of Portland General Electric Company (NYSE: POR) declared a quarterly common stock dividend of $0.50 per share.

The company’s dividend is evaluated based on capital requirements and financial performance. PGE targets a dividend payout ratio of 60 to 70% over the long term.

The quarterly dividend is payable on or before January 15, 2025, to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 24, 2024.

About Portland General Electric Company
Portland General Electric (NYSE: POR) is an integrated energy company that generates, transmits and distributes electricity to over 930,000 customers with a service area population of 1.9 million Oregonians. For more than 130 years, Portland General Electric (PGE) has been powering social progress, delivering safe, affordable, reliable and increasingly clean electricity while working to transform energy systems to meet evolving customer needs. PGE customers have set the standard for prioritizing clean energy with the No. 1 voluntary renewable energy program in the country. PGE was ranked the No. 1 utility in the 2024 Forrester U.S. Customer Experience Index and is committed to reducing emissions from its retail power supply by 80% by 2030 and 100% by 2040. PGE is recognized by the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the company’s commitment to creating a more equal, inclusive workplace. In 2023, PGE employees, retirees and the PGE Foundation donated nearly $4.6 million and volunteered over 23,000 volunteer hours to more than 400 nonprofit organizations. For more information visit www.PortlandGeneral.com/news.

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements in this press release that relate to future plans, objectives, expectations, performance, events and the like may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements represent our estimates and assumptions as of the date of this press release. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other factors.

Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the Company’s full-year earnings guidance (including assumptions and expectations regarding annual retail deliveries, average hydro conditions, wind generation, normal thermal plant operations, operating and maintenance expense and depreciation and amortization expense) as well as other statements containing words such as “anticipates,” “assumptions,” “based on,” “believes,” “conditioned upon,” “considers,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “forecast,” “goals,” “intends,” “needs,” “plans,” “predicts,” “projects,” “promises,” “seeks,” “should,” “subject to,” “targets,” “will continue,” “will likely result,” or similar expressions.

Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation: the timing or outcome of various legal and regulatory actions; changing customer expectations and choices that may reduce demand for electricity; the sale of excess energy during periods of low demand or low wholesale market prices; operational risks relating to the Company’s generation and battery storage facilities, including hydro conditions, wind conditions, disruption of transmission and distribution, disruption of fuel supply, and unscheduled plant outages, which may result in unanticipated operating, maintenance and repair costs, as well as replacement power costs; delays in the supply chain and increased supply costs (including application of tariffs impacting solar module imports), failure to complete capital projects on schedule or within budget, failure of counterparties to perform under agreement, or the abandonment of capital projects, which could result in the Company’s inability to recover project costs, or impact our competitive position, market share, revenues and project margins in material ways; default or nonperformance of counterparties from whom PGE purchases capacity or energy, which require the purchase of replacement power and renewable attributes at increased costs; complications arising from PGE’s jointly-owned plant, including ownership changes, regulatory outcomes or operational failures; the costs of compliance with environmental laws and regulations, including those that govern emissions from thermal power plants; changes in weather, hydroelectric and energy market conditions, which could affect the availability, cost and required collateral for purchased power and fuel; changes in capital and credit market conditions, including volatility of equity markets as well as changes in PGE’s credit ratings and outlook on such credit ratings, reductions in demand for investment-grade commercial paper or interest rates, which could affect the access to and availability or cost of capital and result in delay or cancellation of capital projects or execution of the Company’s strategic plan as currently envisioned; general economic and financial market conditions, including inflation; the effects of climate change, whether global or local in nature; unseasonable or severe weather conditions, wildfires, and other natural phenomena and natural disasters that could result in operational disruptions, unanticipated restoration costs, third party liability or that may affect energy costs or consumption; the effectiveness of PGE’s risk management policies and procedures; PGE’s ability to effectively implement Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) and de-energize its system in the event of heightened wildfire risk; cyber security attacks, data security breaches, physical attacks and security breaches, or other malicious acts, which could disrupt operations, require significant expenditures, or result in claims against the Company; employee workforce factors, including potential strikes, work stoppages, transitions in senior management, and the ability to recruit and retain key employees and other talent and turnover due to macroeconomic trends; widespread health emergencies or outbreaks of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, which may affect our financial position, results of operations and cash flows; failure to achieve the Company’s greenhouse gas emission goals or being perceived to have either failed to act responsibly with respect to the environment or effectively responded to legislative requirements concerning greenhouse gas emission reductions; social attitudes regarding the electric utility and power industries; political and economic conditions; acts of war or terrorism; changes in financial or regulatory accounting principles or policies imposed by governing bodies; changes in effective tax rate; and risks and uncertainties related to generation and transmission projects, including, but not limited to, regulatory processes, transmission capabilities, system interconnections, permitting and construction delays, legislative uncertainty, inflationary impacts, supply costs and supply chain constraints. As a result, actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.

Risks and uncertainties to which the Company are subject are further discussed in the reports that the Company has filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports are available through the EDGAR system free-of-charge on the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov and on the Company’s website, investors.portlandgeneral.com. Investors should not rely unduly on any forward-looking statements.

Media Contact:
Drew Hanson
Corporate Communications
Phone: 503-464-2067

Investor Contact:
Nick White
Investor Relations
Phone: 503-464-8073

Source: Portland General Company

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SOURCE Portland General Company