The Communications Workers of America union pulled out of talks for a new contract, so about 17,000 AT&T workers in the southeast are still on strike.
A lot of people who work in nine states—Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee—quit their jobs last month because they couldn’t come to an agreement on a new contract.
The AT&T workers who are on strike are represented by the CWA. The CWA says that its members want a contract that gives them higher wages and benefits, such as more healthcare.
It also says that the company broke the National Labor Relations Act by not bargaining in good faith to come up with a contract that meets these demands.
The telecom giant based in Dallas rejects the claim.
“We’re disappointed that union leaders would call for a strike at this point in the talks instead of focusing on having productive conversations at the bargaining table.”
“This action puts our employees’ wages and health at unnecessary risk,” an AT&T spokesperson said in an email.
President of Atlanta’s CWA Local 3204, Ed Barlow, says that the strike is directly caused by the lack of talks.
As Barlow put it, “Our members are ready to stay out on strike as long as we have to in order to get the company to do the right thing at the bargaining table” if the company doesn’t send the right person.
AT&T asked for a return to negotiations with a government mediator present, and union leaders agreed. However, on Monday, CWA told AT&T that it was pulling out of the mediation process.
“We appreciate what the mediator did.” AT&T, stop making excuses. In a news release, CWA District 3 Vice President Richard Honeycutt said, “It’s time to return to work and start bargaining again so we can serve our customers.”
A spokesman for the telecom giant says that progress on the contract for thousands of workers will need to be made with some compromises, even if a neutral third party steps in.
A representative for AT&T said, “We thank the mediator for their work throughout this process.”
Leader of the CWA, Claude Cummings Jr., joined workers on the picket line outside of AT&T’s Atlanta offices last week.
“Hey, maybe we could get a deal.” He said, “If they would just bargain, we could probably get a deal today if they would just bargain.”
He says AT&T hasn’t sent anyone to the table yet who has the power to bargain.
“We just want you to bargain, just bargain with us and we’ll get to a place where we will have something that we both can live with and to send these members to vote on,” Cummings Jr. said.
“Customers are in pain,” Cummings Jr. said.
People are complaining on social media that their internet service is going down and that repairs are taking too long.
There is an economist named Tom Smith at Emory University.
“I don’t think that this is gonna go on for months and months and months, but it could,” he said.
He says that users will have to deal with service interruptions until a deal is made.
“If it wasn’t annoying or hurtful to customers in any way, I think AT&T wouldn’t feel any pressure to negotiate,” he said.
A group of about 20,000 CWA AT&T workers in the South went on strike for four days in 2019 because they couldn’t agree on new salaries.
The strike ended with a five-year tentative deal between CWA and AT&T that increased wages and enhanced retirement plans for workers.
“I mean, you know, no one wants to be here,” Smith said. “I don’t think the workers who are on strike want to be on strike.” AT&T doesn’t want the service to go down. Customers clearly don’t want the service interruptions,” he said.
AT&T said in a statement that it remains focused on reaching a fair agreement, and is providing customer service throughout the work stoppage.