(This is from the CWA newsletter)
T&T Southeast
As bargaining opened on Monday with AT&T Southeast for about 22,000 CWA members, the CWA bargaining team emphasized the need for AT&T to share its record-breaking profits with the people who make it all possible - its employees.
"If you were to visit any work center or call center across [CWA] District 3, you would discover that your employees, our members, are not treated with the respect they have earned and deserve," said Richard Honeycutt, Vice President of CWA District 3, in opening remarks to the company.
Though the company claims that recent job cuts announced before Father's Day including more than 900 in the Southeast are a result of a lack of work to be done, AT&T has increasingly turned to contractors to perform CWA members' work in call centers and in the field.
"We start this bargaining session demanding AT&T show our hard-working members the respect and loyalty they deserve. This can be done through better wages, benefits, improved work rules, and job security. Give work to your employees - CWA members - not the employees of other companies," Honeycutt said.
The current contract expires on August 3, 2019.