The Los Angeles Times reports
An estimated 17,000 AT&T technicians in California and Nevada went on strike [March 22], highlighting workplace tensions within the massive Dallas telecommunications giant.
The strike follows a protracted dispute between AT&T and union members affiliated with the Communications Workers of America [CWA], District 9, who have been working without a contract for nearly a year. Workers say they have been increasingly asked to perform the duties of higher-paid employees and that AT&T has cut sick leave and disability benefits and required them to pay more for their healthcare.
Another sticking point is AT&T's closure of U.S. call centers, including a facility near Anaheim. The union contends that AT&T has moved 8,000 call center jobs in recent years to the Philippines, Mexico, and other countries.
[...] "We're currently negotiating with the union in a good-faith effort to reach a fair labor agreement covering wireline employees" in California and Nevada, [said AT&T spokesman Marty Richter]. "We've reached 28 fair labor agreements since 2015, collectively covering nearly 123,000 employees."
AT&T said it has hired 20,000 people into union-represented jobs in 2016 and has more than 4,200 other union job openings.
"We're a union-friendly company, with more full-time, union-represented employees than any company in America", Richter said. "We're the only major wireless company with a unionized workforce."
Union officials said Wednesday's walkout, which began at 6 a.m., was triggered by AT&T's demand that technicians who typically install and maintain the company's U-Verse TV service also work on the cables and hardware for landline phone service (AT&T's wireless division is not affected by the action).
"We are hoping to reach an agreement settlement with the company", said Shelia Bordeaux, a member of the executive board of the CWA Local 9003 in Los Angeles. "They are unilaterally and continually changing the job duties of our premise technicians to do a higher-wage job at a lower rate of pay."
The two sides have been trying to negotiate a new contract to replace the one that expired in April 2016. Bordeaux said Wednesday's strike was to resolve the issue of job duties for the premise technicians, and only included landline workers who belong to the CWA in California and Nevada.
In addition to Los Angeles, workers were striking in San Diego and San Francisco.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 25 2017, @05:03PM (1 child)
We need some Pinkerton [wikipedia.org]/National Guard [wikipedia.org] style action to put that scum in their place.
More pay? More sick leave? Those deadbeats need to get off the crack pipe! Get back to work and maybe we'll let you keep your jobs at 1/4 pay!
Don't get in the way of 'murikkkan progress, motherfuckers! Or you traitors^W strikers are going be living the rest of your short-ass lives in agonizing pain!
Don't fuck with corporate profits or you'll pay the price, you ratbags!
We're going to make 'murikkka great again if we have to kill every last one of you.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 25 2017, @11:43PM
Some more concepts of that age:
Robber baron [wikipedia.org]
The Long Depression (1873-1896) [google.com]
The Guilded Age [erenow.com]
Seeing any parallels to today?
[1] Donnie Tiny Hands recently made a pilgrimage to Jackson's home.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]