CWA Local 1298 and AT&T Fight for U-Verse and 1,300 Jobs

"Unity at AT&T" took on a whole new meaning in District 1, as members of CWA Local 1298 in Hartford, Conn., took action in support AT&T's "U-Verse" – the company's high-speed broadband and television service.

Those efforts paid off on Oct. 31 when a Superior Court Judge overturned a decision by the state utility board that would have blocked AT&T from competing with cable companies. 

"In a rare move, AT&T and Local 1298 have partnered to save 1,300 jobs," said District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton. "With this victory, Local 1298 has shown what a mobilized membership can achieve."

Local 1298 President Bill Henderson said, "We at CWA Local 1298 are thrilled and want to thank our members for all their efforts on this issue. Because of the court's decision, the layoff threat for 1,300 members has been circumvented."

Some 200 Local 1298 members rallied on Oct. 18 against the utility board decision, and Henderson, along with top officers and business agents from the local, attended an Oct. 26 Superior Court hearing seeking to overturn the DPUC decision.

The local delivered more than 13,000 letters from employees, friends and customers telling leaders of the State Legislature that "DPUC got it wrong" and asking them to call a special session to overturn the decision.

Henderson and an AT&T executive also appeared together on a YouTube video encouraging CWA members to contact the governor and state legislators to urge them to overturn a Department of Public Utility Control decision that would have made it impossible for AT&T's U-Verse high-speed broadband and TV service to compete with cable TV companies. Watch the video and get more information at www.cwa1298.org.

State regulators originally determined in 2006 that U-Verse, because it is a new technology using Internet protocol, was not a cable service, would not be regulated as such and therefore did not require a franchise license. AT&T quickly swung into action to roll out U-Verse to neighborhoods and customers.

Cable companies challenged that decision and a federal court reversed that ruling, finding that U-Verse does meet the federal definition of a cable company under the Cable TV Act. But the court's decision gave individual states great leeway in regulating cable providers.

Last month, state regulators declared that AT&T must cease deployment of U-Verse and abandon customers who had already signed up, unless it was willing to apply for a cable license and build a network to serve the entire state.

AT&T and CWA maintained that the regulations and requirements previously imposed on cable companies were as a result of the virtual monopoly that cable enjoyed. To impose those same requirements on companies that compete with a completely new and different technology – in this case Internet protocol -- would be cost prohibitive and deprive consumers of a choice of providers.