17,000 ATT Workers End the Southeast's Longest Telecommunications Strike After 30 Days (cwa-union.org)
- Reference: 0175003611
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/16/0127232/17000-att-workers-end-the-southeasts-longest-telecommunications-strike-after-30-days
- Source link: https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/att-southeast-strike-ends
The 30-day strike was "the longest telecommunications strike in the region's history," [4]according to the union — announcing today that they'd now negotiated "strong tentative contract agreements" and that workers would report to work for their scheduled shifts tomorrow.
> The new contract in the Southeast covers 17,000 workers technicians, customer service representatives and others who install, maintain and support AT&T's residential and business wireline telecommunications network in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
>
> Wages and health care costs were key issues at the bargaining table, and the five-year agreement includes across the board wage increases of 19.33%, with additional 3% increases for Wire Technicians and Utility Operations. The health care agreement holds health care premiums steady in the first year and lowers them in the second and third years, with modest monthly increases in the final two years.
The statement adds that "CWA members and retirees from every region and sector of our union mobilized in support of our bargaining teams, including by distributing flyers with information about the strike at AT&T Wireless stores." CWA District 3 Vice President Richard Honeycutt added "We know that our customers have faced hardship during the strike as well. We are happy to be getting back to work keeping our communities safe and connected."
There's also a separate four-year agreement covering 8,500 AT&T West workers in California and Nevada. "Union members will meet to review the tentative agreements, before holding ratification votes in each region."
AT&T's chief operating officer said the Southeast agreement will "support our competitive position in the broadband industry where we can grow and [5]win against our mostly non-union competitors ."
[1] https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/18/0228218/as-17000-att-workers-strike-some-customers-experience-prolonged-outages
[2] https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article291148025.html
[3] https://www.npr.org/2024/09/05/g-s1-21081/at-t-cwa-southern-states-telecom-strike-collective-bargaining
[4] https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/att-southeast-strike-ends
[5] https://about.att.com/pages/bargaining
Strikers required to picket for union pay (Score:2)
For transparency, since the news media never ever tells the actual story. Union members are required to walk picket lines and work for union strike duties during a strike in order to receive pay from the union during the strike. And to think, 99% of America news readers and TV news viewers would think that union members are out picketing for free.
Other unions would have similar requirements.
[1]https://uaw.org/strike-faq/ [uaw.org]
To be eligible for strike pay and benefits, members must be:
In good standing (cu
[1] https://uaw.org/strike-faq/
Re: (Score:2)
> I don't think most Americans think they picket for free
Yes, they do. Most Americans think unions poop sunshine and puppies. They think teachers unions, in particular, are in direct communication with the spirit of Mother Teresa. They think Democrats are pro-worker, like it's 1925 forever. They think unions "built the middle class."
Meanwhile, the establishment is rapidly replacing them with cheap imports. All these AT&T workers will be replaced inside of 10 years with cheap, green card equipped Democrat voting foreigners. No need to speak English to
Media misportraying union altruistics (Score:2)
Agree. Unions are overwhelmingly portrayed in the news media as only having altruistic values and support for middle class families.
My only point was that the media dishonestly never reports union picketers as 'forced to picket to get union funds'. If the media intentionally does not report that inconvenient fact, what bigger inconvenient facts are not reported....
- Federal reserve employees not prevented from insider trading on economic news and federal reserve actions - [1]https://abcnews.go.com/US/wire... [go.com]
[1] https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fed-officials-investments-broke-ethics-rules-skirt-insider-113601884
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, let's bust unions and allow AT&T to replace the workers 10 years ahead of schedule! Fuck yeah, corporate capitalism!
Re: (Score:2)
> Union members are required to walk picket lines
Your own citation refutes that. Union members can do all kinds of duties, like transportation, childcare for kids of striking workers, etc. In practice, with large unions (like the UAW) most union members just stay home during strikes.
Well Shite (Score:4, Interesting)
At least there's an explanation for the recent internet outage... often we get nothing at all at the office. We keep both ATT internet, and whatever Suddenlink has evolved into, so we can have internet most of the time.