Bargaining Update

AT&T Mobility Orange Contract
 
AT&T management has tried to pull a fast one in negotiating with 21,000 CWA Mobility members. The company publicized what it called a "final offer," deliberately bypassing the CWA bargaining committee that has been pushing the company for ten months on the issues that members want to have resolved. AT&T sent out the proposal directly to members this week, a bad-faith bargaining scheme that isn't going to work.
 
In a message to Mobility workers, CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor noted, "In bargaining, the company's chief negotiator has repeatedly said, 'We have no interest in job security.' So it's no surprise the company's phony pledge on job security doesn't prevent them from closing your store or call center and offering you a job in Nome, Alaska!" Trainor stressed that the wage increases the company cited "will do little good if they can ship even more of our jobs to the Philippines, and won't do much good if they can close our store and open up a low wage authorized dealer store."

Read the full message from Vice President Trainor here.

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Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and 16 U.S. Senate colleagues signed on to a letter to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, calling on him to "reevaluate the current situation and engage constructively with union negotiators" to reach a contract.

"Our understanding is that AT&T workers in 36 states and Washington D.C. have been working without a contract for over 8 months. Investing in your employees, including through a limit on the amount of outsourcing of customer service work, would demonstrate a strong commitment to the American workforce and calm fears of further offshoring to countries including the Philippines and Mexico, and outsourcing to non-union contractors here in the United States.

"Even as AT&T faces the challenges of a rapidly evolving and volatile telecommunications industry, AT&T wireless workers are driving tremendous profits. These workers deserve a fair share of the wireless division's $1 billion monthly profit," they wrote.

Read more here.

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Frontier Communications

The contract covering 1,600 CWA members at Frontier in West Virginia and Ashburn, Va., has been extended until March 3, 2018. The current contract was set to expire on Nov. 4.

Negotiations are continuing, and members are mobilizing to show their solidarity and commitment to gaining a fair contract and keeping good jobs in our communities. Bargaining committee members are President Ken William, Local 2001; President Rick McKinney, Local 2007; President Shannon Fink, Local 2009, and CWA staff Linda Miller, Elaine Harris, and Letha Perry, chair of the committee.

These CWA members make sure that Frontier Communications knows we’re serious about getting a fair contract.
Clockwise, from top left: Local 2002, Local 2009, Local 2276, Local 2009, Local 2276.

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Camden County Library

CWA Local 1014 and the Camden County Library Commission reached a tentative agreement on October 25 that will increase the minimum hourly wage for the lowest paid Local 1014-represented position to $15, effective 2019. This will nearly double workers' wages from the current hourly minimum rate of $8.92. The agreement caps a two-year campaign by the local to fight for fair wages and a $15 an hour minimum. Members are voting now on the tentative agreement.