More than 17,000 AT&T workers are on strike across multiple states as the Communications Workers of America (CWA) protests over what it calls “unfair labor practices committed by management during negotiations for a new union contract.”
The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against AT&T for:
Not bargaining in good faith
Engaging in surface bargaining
Not sending representatives to the bargaining table with the authority to make decisions.
Refusal to bargain over mandatory subjects
Reneging on agreements made during bargaining
“Our union entered into negotiations in a good faith effort to reach a fair contract, but we have been met at the table by company representatives who were unable to explain their own bargaining proposals and did not seem to have the actual bargaining authority required by the legal obligation to bargain in good faith,” said CWA District 3 Vice President Richard Honeycutt.
“Our members want to be on the job, providing the quality service that our customers deserve. It’s time for AT&T to start negotiating in good faith so that we can move forward towards a fair contract.”
AT&T reaction to strike
AT&T responded to the CWA statement saying: “CWA’s claims of unfair labor practices are not grounded in fact. We have been engaged in substantive bargaining since day one and are eager to reach an agreement that benefits our hard-working employees. As evidence, we have reached three agreements this year covering more than 13,000 employees, including our most recent tentative agreement with District 9 (west).
“We remain committed to working with District 3 (southeast) in the same manner. We’re disappointed that union leaders would call for a strike at this point in the negotiations, rather than directing their energies toward constructive discussions at the bargaining table. This action needlessly jeopardizes the wages and well-being of our employees.”
Which states are AT&T strikes in?
The strike includes technicians, customer service representatives, and support workers for AT&T’s residential and business wireline telecommunications network in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
The move comes as large corporations such as Amazon and SpaceX, seek to undermine the work of the NLRB by making legal consitutional challenges that have thus far resulted in delays to cases, but are likely to have a greater impact in the long run.