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tract for 13,000 employees who formerly worked for Qwest Communications. It's the first time CenturyLink has negotiated with the union since it acquired Denver-based Qwest in 2011 in a deal that turned it into the nation's third-largest telephone company.
• Kogler said the main sticking points in the talks include a proposed 350 percent increase in health care premiums, bringing jobs that have been moved overseas, including customer service slots, back to the U.S., and using fewer contract workers domestically, replacing them with staff workers.
• CenturyLink spokesman Mark Molzen said the company's proposal would bring premiums in line with the national average over several years. He also said it has proposed returning some jobs to the United States but wouldn't say how many.
• The employees covered by the contract include customer service agents, network technicians and Internet support workers in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, North Dakota, New Mexico, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
• Negotiations started on Aug. 15, 2012 and, in October, 88 percent of the workers voted to authorize a strike. The executive board took its vote on Wednesday.
• About 100 CenturyLink workers in Montana are represented by another union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. They're not involved in the CenturyLink negotiations, although Kogler said they have previously signed contracts similar to ones that CenturyLink reached with Qwest.
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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The state of South Dakota will be appearing in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade for another three years, Tourism Secretary James Hagen said Thursday.
• Hagen said Macy's invited the Department of Tourism to renew their contact to appear in the parade for a float that features Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, the Black Hills and more. For the past three years, a South Dakota float featuring some of the state's most well-known attractions has appeared in the parade. A musician also has been featured on the float. Past musicians include Don McLean and Neil Diamond.
• "We were really excited," Hagen said of the contract renewal. "The thing that most excites me is that not a lot of states or different entities get the opportunity to be able to showcase themselves on this sort of platform."
• Hagen said 43 million people watched the first airing of this past year's broadcast, which adds to the state's exposure.

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