Update: The strike is now underway.
AT&T is facing a weekend strike of nearly 40,000 employees, with workers threatening to walk off the job at 3 p.m. ET Friday if the company does not “present serious contract proposals,” according to the Communications Workers of America.
CWA said that the anticipated AT&T strike would last three days and would include AT&T Mobility employees in 36 states and the District of Columbia; wireline workers in California, Nevada, and Connecticut; and DirecTV technicians in California and Nevada.
“This would be the first time AT&T Mobility workers go on strike, potentially disrupting a large number of retail stores across the country this weekend,” CWA said.
Dennis Trainor, Vice President of CWA District 1, said in a union statement that “we have made every effort to bargain in good faith with AT&T, but have only been met with delays and excuses. Now, AT&T is facing the possibility of closed stores for the first time ever. Our demands are clear and have been for months: fair contract or strike. It’s now in AT&T’s hands to stand with workers or at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday workers will be off the job and onto picket lines across the country.”
A one-day strike in March by approximately 17,000 call center and office workers represented by the Communications Workers of Americas in California and Nevada led to rapid contract settlement between the union and AT&T.
AT&T, for its part, said that the company is prepared for workers to walk off the job but continues to negotiate.
“We’re continuing to bargain, and it’s baffling as to why union leadership would consider calling a strike one when we’re offering terms in which their members – some of whom average from $115,000 to $148,000 in total compensation – will be better off financially,” AT&T spokesman Marty Richter told RCR Wireless News. “We’re prepared for a possible strike. If it happens, we will continue working hard to serve our customers. The contracts together involve only about 13 percent of our employees.”
Richter went on to say that “we’ve reached 29 fair agreements since 2015 covering over 128,000 of our employees, and we’re confident we can do the same here. We’re offering generous terms in these negotiations including annual wage and pension increases, as well as comprehensive healthcare benefits, similar to what other employees across the country have ratified in other contracts. We’re confident employees will be better off financially in their new contract.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to reflect a strike deadline of 3 p.m. Friday. An earlier version of the story indicated that the strike deadline was 3 p.m. Thursday.
