As Contract Expiration Nears, CWA Calls on AT&T to Get Serious in Bargaining

Contact: Candice Johnson, CWA Communications, cjohnson@cwa-union.org

Atlanta -- With just a little more than a day until the Saturday night, Aug. 8 contract expiration, members of the Communications Workers of America are calling on AT&T Southeast to get serious about bargaining a fair contract.

CWA represents 28,000 workers at AT&T Southeast. This week, CWA members at AT&T Southeast voted overwhelmingly – by a 96 percent vote -- to authorize union leaders to call a strike if a fair contract can’t be reached.  

After weeks of negotiations, the CWA bargaining team reports that AT&T Southeast management continues to demand concessions in job security, health care, and working conditions, including a demand for excessive forced overtime.

AT&T is a very profitable company, posting profits of $6.5 billion in 2014. Workers at AT&T deserve to share in the company’s success.  

There’s still time to turn this around and we hope to see some constructive negotiations in the remaining hours before expiration.

The negotiations cover 28,000 AT&T Southeast workers in nine states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, at AT&T Southeast, AT&T Utility Operations and BellSouth Billing. A separate YP Holdings contract has been extended until Sept. 18 while negotiations continue. 

###

CWA represents 700,000 workers in telecommunications, media, airlines, public service and manufacturing.