SoylentNews

17,000 AT&T Workers in California and Nevada Go on Strike

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday March 25 2017, @11:39AM   
from the squeezing-workers-to-maximize-corporate-profits dept.

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

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.

---

Original Submission

• ''Get over it'' (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @04:45AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @04:45AM (#484269)

  Dear anti-worker person:

  You will be happy to know that
  Telecom union calls bogus "strike" at AT&T in California and Nevada [wsws.org]

  An estimated 17,000 AT&T technicians and call center staff in California and Nevada returned to work Thursday morning after a walkout called by the Communications Workers of America that lasted less than 24 hours.

  CWA officials said the walkout was triggered by AT&T's unilateral decision to force technicians to perform duties out of their job titles and to increase "work flow", i.e., productivity. The CWA claimed that a settlement it reached late Wednesday would prevent the telecom giant from making technicians perform work outside their classification.
  [...]
  The stunt was aimed at defusing anger and frustration over the fact that workers have been working without a new contract for nearly a year
  [...]
  The CWA has a history of colluding with management to impose concessions on workers, including wage cuts, reductions and elimination of benefits, as well as two-tiered pensions schemes that leave newer workers with no pension at all.

  The CWA has blocked any nationwide struggle by workers and when it has been forced to call strikes, the CWA has isolated embattled workers and sought to starve them into submission. It has also utilized isolated walkouts, "grievance strikes," and other short-term theatrics such as Wednesday's "strike" to posture as opponents of the companies, while behind the scenes it collaborates with the telecom bosses.

  The following pro-company actions by the CWA within the last year illustrate this policy:

  • In the fall of 2016 at Momentive--a former General Electric plastics plant in upstate New York---the CWA shut down a 15-week strike and forced workers back to work with pay and health care cuts.
  • The seven-week Verizon strike in the spring of 2016, despite being hailed as a "victory" by the CWA officials, saw workers forfeit wages only to be sent back to work by the CWA with concessions on health care and miniscule raises, which did not keep pace with inflation. This was followed by hundreds of job cuts.
  • In May 2016, the CWA ended a four-day walkout by AT&T workers in San Diego to prevent a unified struggle on both coasts with striking Verizon workers.

  We previously discussed the Verizon thing.
  In another story, I got a +5 for details about the Momentive thing.

  -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  Parent