CWA in Connecticut: AT&T Wont Talk To Us
Just two days after AT&T union workers in the company’s Southwest region ratified a new contract after a long dispute, we’ve learned some employees in the Northeast might be no closer to a deal than they were several months ago.
The president of the local Communications Workers of America branch in Connecticut, which represents about 4,000 employees, told the Waterbury Republican American that AT&T hasn’t been willing to sit down for a while.
“We said, ‘Look, we’re bargaining with ourselves here. It takes two people to come to a contract,'” President William Henderson told the Waterbury newspaper.
Whereas health benefits and wages have been the biggest hurdle in other regions, the workers in Connecticut are most concerned about job security because the company has moved or cut 1,200 jobs in that state in the past two years.
Seventy percent of 120,000 workers covered under core landline contracts have signed new, four-year agreements that increase wages and secure health benefits. Only the Connecticut workers and the Southeast remain working under terms of their previous contracts.
