Contract Expires at AT&T West; CWA Members Will Report to Work

Sacramento, California – The contract covering 18,000 workers represented by the Communications Workers of America at AT&T West expired at midnight PDT, with many important issues not yet resolved.

The AT&T West bargaining covers CWA-represented workers in California and Nevada.

CWA members at AT&T West will continue to report to work for now, although that can change at any time. Workers are keeping their option to strike open. For workers, the terms of the contract will remain in effect, meaning that wages, working conditions and benefits like health care will continue unchanged, with the exception of arbitration for grievances.

CWA members overwhelmingly authorized union leaders to call a strike if a fair contract can’t be reached, by a 93 percent vote.

AT&T is the nation’s leading telecommunications company and posted a profit of $20 billion last year. AT&T workers want to hold on to the American Dream and maintain the standard of living they have earned by making AT&T so successful.    

As part of the 99% Spring trainings that will be held in every state the week of April 9-15, CWA members will share their fight at AT&T with participants from their communities and will make the fight to keep our standard of living a part of 99 percent spring actions. More than 60 progressive, labor and community organizations have joined the 99% Spring; more than 100,000 participants will join the training next week.   

Workers at three other AT&T units also are working without contracts as negotiations go forward:

AT&T East, covering 4,000 workers; AT&T Midwest, covering 15,000 workers and AT&T Legacy, covering 6,000 workers.

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Contact: Candice Johnson, CWA Communications, 202-434-1168, cjohnson@cwa-union.org and Libby Sayre, CWA District 9, lsayre@cwa-union.org and 916-541-3765 (cell)