Erica Techo
AT&T office
An informational picket was held near The Summit, across the street from AT&T's local office, on Aug. 20.
As part of ongoing contract negotiations between AT&T and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union, local AT&T employees picketed Thursday morning at the Summit intersection of U.S. 280, near AT&T’s local office.
Nick Hawkins, the president of the CWA local chapter in Louisville, Kentucky, is assisting with the negotiations happening in Atlanta. He said negotiations have been ongoing for a few months and the contract that Birmingham’s AT&T employees work under expired on Aug. 8. Since then, employees have been working without a contract.
AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said about 24,500 employees across the Southeast are affected by this negotiation. He said it is “not at all unusual” for union workers to continue on the job without a contract in these situations, and he expects a fair resolution based on previous negotiations in other areas of the country.
“We were able to reach very reasonable contracts that continued to provide excellent wages and benefits [in those negotiations]. We’re committed to doing the same here,” Richter said.
Hawkins said some of the issues on the table include wages, increases in health insurance premiums, guaranteed full time work for full time employees and limits to forced overtime. He said currently there are no restrictions on the amount of overtime AT&T can make its employees work each week.
“CWA members, AT&T employees are people who want to be active in their community. They want to go to church, they want coach Little League teams,” Hawkins said. “We’re just trying to produce a healthy work/life balance.”
He said the Birmingham employees chose to organize the “informational picket” to inform the public of the negotiations and show AT&T that they take the contract issues seriously. Hawkins said that a strike is a possibility at this point.
“We have members on standby waiting for a strike to be called any time,” he said.
Richter said AT&T is also prepared for such a possibility, should negotiations come to that point.
“We remain confident that both parties will work conscientiously and in good faith toward a suitable agreement, and we don’t think a strike is in anyone’s best interest,” Richter said. “We have systematically and thoroughly planned for a potential work stoppage and have a substantial contingency workforce of well-trained replacements ready.”
