Negotiations with AT&T Are About Good Jobs, Respect and Quality Family Life

Statement by the Communications Workers of America District 3, as 28,000 AT&T Southeast workers continue without a contract while negotiations continue.

Atlanta -- Today we are continuing negotiations with AT&T.  The issues that AT&T workers are facing have a direct impact on our communities and our families. We are your friends and neighbors, and our communities are important to us.  Often times in contract negotiations, we hear only about money.

But these negotiations are about respect, a better quality of family life and keeping good jobs in our communities.

AT&T is a very profitable company and our members do deserve to be compensated fairly.

But something that’s very important to workers at AT&T is a chance to spend more time with their families. Right now, AT&T forces employees to work an unlimited amount of overtime hours. That’s excessive and keeps parents from spending time with their children and balancing their work and family lives.

AT&T workers serve our customers on a daily basis and are the backbone and the face of this company. We all want to be treated with dignity and respect in the work place. That’s what these negotiations are all about.

AT&T is an extremely profitable company, with second quarter revenues topping $33 billion.  AT&T also recently completed a $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV.  Workers are being very reasonable, but AT&T is following a greedy agenda. Workers are committed to getting a fair contract and are holding actions and building support in communities throughout the nine southeastern states. It’s time for AT&T to do the right thing, and that’s to treat employees fairly.