More than 17,000 AT&T workers in the US south-east remain on strike as the Communications Workers of America have accused the company of unfair labor practices for attempting to further delay bargaining a new union contract.
The workers, technicians, customer service representatives and others who install, maintain and support AT&T’s network have been on strike since 16 August in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Bargaining began in June, ahead of the 3 August expiration date for the workers’ five-year contract.
Richard Honeycutt, the CWA district 3 vice-president, explained the union is seeking improvements to wages that take into account the increases to the cost of living and high inflation, maintaining affordable healthcare and to secure protections for a second tier of workers to improve their work-life balance. The employees in question are subjected to forced overtime without notification, making it difficult for them to plan out their lives and spend time with their families.
“They’ve had to raise their families through FaceTime because they don’t know if they’re going to be working till 10 or 11 o’clock at night, and so you can forget about T-ball games and the typical stuff that you try to do with your family, because there’s no certainty,” Honeycutt said. “That’s what we went into bargaining with trying to get for our membership. But as we got closer to the expiration it just seemed like AT&T was not bargaining.”
He noted that the union filed unfair labor practice charges over the company’s delays in bargaining a new contract in 2019 negotiations, which resulted in managers from AT&T corporate attending bargaining sessions, with a tentative agreement reached shortly thereafter. Despite this, the same delays and issues have repeated and remain.
“Their movement was very, very minimal and so that’s what led to us filing unfair labor practices,” Honeycutt added. “As we were approaching, and even since the contract has expired, it’s like they’re just shuffling stuff around. There’s no real substance to what they’re proposing to try to get to a tentative agreement that can be voted on by the membership.”
He explained that AT&T’s representatives have not been able to explain their proposals or make decisions in bargaining at the negotiation table. And the union is pushing for AT&T to have the company representatives who are making decisions on proposals to attend bargaining sessions.
The union recently pulled out of federal mediation with AT&T with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) as they went into talks believing AT&T would improve how they have been bargaining. But the union viewed AT&T postures in mediation as just another delay tactic to reach an agreement.
“Basically they continued to bargain the same way. And so we felt like, for whatever reason, they were hiding behind the process of mediation,” Honeycutt concluded. “We know it’s having an impact on the customers and I think our members and me, included in the leadership, can say that’s not a good thing.
“We’re not happy to have to do that. Our members do want to be out there doing their job, working for the customers, keeping their internet up. It’s not just your home phone and your home internet. We’re talking about circuits for 911 – you’ve got circuits that feed airports. You’ve got circuits that feed various government agencies and businesses. We’re talking about some major stuff that could go wrong. We’re ready to go back if we just see the right movement as far as trying to address the charges.”
A spokesperson for AT&T criticized the union for withdrawing from federal mediation. They said doing that is inconsistent with the unfair labor practice charges that CWA district 3 filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
“Regardless of whether a neutral third-party is present, progress will not be made without a willingness to compromise,” the spokesperson said in an email. “As we have said from day one, we are focused on reaching a fair and competitive agreement that benefits our hard-working employees as quickly as possible and this won’t change.
“In the meantime, we will remain prepared for all contingencies to ensure our customers receive the excellent service they deserve.”
