Thousands of AT&T workers represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) are on strike, accusing the telecom giant of negotiating in bad faith over a new union contract. That included a few dozen workers picketing outside AT&T’s corporate office in Midtown Atlanta on Tuesday.
The strike, which began Friday afternoon, involves over 17,000 technicians and customer service workers in CWA District 3, stretching across Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina, according to the union. It will continue, CWA said, until AT&T is willing to properly negotiate a new contract.
The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against AT&T for not bargaining in good faith. The previous union contract, negotiated in 2019, expired on Aug. 3, and negotiations for the new contract have been ongoing since June, according to Beth Allen, a CWA spokesperson.
“Our members continued to work without a contract while bargaining continued. Despite our best efforts at the bargaining table, AT&T has not been bargaining in good faith, and so that’s why we filed the unfair labor practice charge against them, and that’s why the members walked out on strike,” she said.
A few dozen workers wearing red CWA shirts and holding signs asking motorists to honk to show their support picketed outside of AT&T’s Midtown corporate office at 754 West Peachtree Street on Tuesday. They directed press inquiries to their union leaders.
CWA has accused AT&T of stalling negotiations by sending negotiators to the bargaining table who don’t have the authority to make decisions, according to Ed Barlow, the president of CWA Local 3204, which represents roughly 1,700 workers in the metro Atlanta area.
“The folks at the bargaining table, we feel, don’t even have the authority to make agreements with us,” Barlow said. “They pass us proposals, and we ask questions about the proposals, and they’re not even able to explain them. So they tell us they’re not responsible for writing them.”
AT&T has a legal obligation for its representatives at the bargaining table to have bargaining authority, according to NLRB rules. “So we need the folks at the bargaining table that are decision-makers, so that we can get this thing ironed out for our members,” said Barlow, who has worked as an AT&T technician for 25 years.
An AT&T spokesperson denied the charge of negotiating in bad faith in an emailed statement to Atlanta Civic Circle. AT&T said it was “disappointed” by the strike, pointing out that it has reached three agreements with CWA, covering 13,000 employees, in the past year. CWA represents over 150,000 AT&T workers nationally.
“CWA’s claims of unfair labor practices are not grounded in fact. We have been engaged in substantive bargaining since Day 1 and are eager to reach an agreement that benefits our hard-working employees,” AT&T said. “We remain committed to working with District 3 (Southeast) in the same manner.”
AT&T said in the email that it has “various business continuity measures in place” to avoid any disruption to services.
One passerby at the Midtown picket, Alex Gomez, a former AT&T manager, said he wasn’t surprised at all to see workers striking. “AT&T is a company constantly in flux … They don’t value their customers, they certainly don’t value their employees — and this is the result of that right here,” he said.
“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,” said Richard Honeycutt, the vice president of CWA District 3, which represents the workers currently on strike.