Bargaining Update

AT&T Midwest and AT&T Legacy T

CWA members delivered more than 100,000 petition signatures to AT&T Headquarters in Dallas last Friday during the final stop of the AT&T Broken Promises Tour.

The tour kicked off in Detroit on August 6 and participants attended rallies and roundtable meetings in Toledo and Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis and Bloomington, Ind.; Kansas City, Mo. and other cities in the region that have experienced the effects of AT&T's job cuts.

Check out the highlights video here.

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Elected officials continue to pressure AT&T to live up to the promises the company made on creating jobs with its massive profits from the Republican corporate tax cut bill.

All 30 members of the Indiana House Democratic Caucus, led by Indiana House Democratic Leader Dr. Terry Goodin, sent a letter this week to AT&T Indiana President Bill Soards calling on the company to settle a fair contract with workers that protects and creates jobs as was promised by AT&T during debate over the tax bill. Similar letters have been sent by all of the Democratic members of the Ohio State Senate led by Ohio State Senate minority leader Kenny Yuko, and by Ohio House Democrats led by House Minority Leader Fred Strahorn.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson pledged that if the tax cut passed, the company would spend at least $1 billion in capital expenditures and be able to create "7,000 good jobs for the middle class." Instead, despite $20 billion in tax savings, a new CWA analysis based on AT&T's Q2 earnings report estimates that the company has eliminated over 7,000 jobs since January 2018 when the tax cuts took effect.

"It is our understanding that just weeks after the tax bill passed, AT&T laid off 1,500 workers. We also were advised that just this past week, another surplus was announced," the letter states. "We stand with the workers of Indiana and we support CWA's demand of job security, healthcare, and the return of contracted out/offshored jobs," the Indiana representatives wrote. 

Read the full letter here.

CWA members delivered more than 100,000 petition signatures to AT&T Headquarters in Dallas last Friday during the final stop of the AT&T Broken Promises Tour.

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Verizon

CWA members at Verizon in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions and at Verizon Connected Solutions voted to ratify a four-year extension of their current contracts, which were set to expire in August 2019.
 
The extensions provide for additional wage increases and enhanced retirement benefits. The agreement, which extends the contracts through August 5, 2023, will deliver an 11.2% wage increase over the additional four years and covers more than 34,000 Verizon workers, including call center workers, and central office and field technicians.
 
"This agreement builds on the success of the 2016 strike, and it will ensure a better future and good, family-supporting jobs for thousands of Verizon workers," said CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor.

"This is a solid contract for Verizon workers that will improve wages and raise the living standards of our members across the region," said Ed Mooney, Vice President for CWA District 2-13.
 
Separate agreements were ratified covering 40 Verizon Wireless retail workers in Brooklyn and 7 workers in Hazleton, Pa., who voted last month to join CWA.
 
Learn more here.

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Consolidated Communications

Members of CWA Local 1400 and IBEW System Council T-9 voted overwhelmingly to ratify the tentative agreements between the unions and Consolidated Communications covering 1,200 workers in New England. 

Both the CWA and IBEW agreements maintain affordable health care and local jobs for the life of the agreements, and provide enhanced retirement benefits through a new 401K savings plan. In addition, the agreements restore 128 days of seniority to members who held the line during the strike of 2014-15.