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It has been 9 months since approximately 450 CWA members of CWA 7200 & 7250 that have been working without a contract at AT&T.
Like many other companies, AT&T benefited from tax-cutting legislation. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson promised that every $1 billion in tax savings would create “7,000 good jobs for the middle class.” After the passage of the bill the company announced thousands of layoffs and continues to shift work to low-wage overseas contractors.
CWA Local 7250 President Shari Wojtowicz stated:
“We need other working people to get involved in our fight. If we don’t stand up to AT&T and other corporations, along with our Elected Officials, Executives and large shareholders will continue to pocket the huge tax savings instead of investing in good paying jobs in the United States. Our families and our communities will suffer. If we let them keep eliminating our jobs today, where will our kids work tomorrow?”
As we reported on in July 2018 Democratic senators and representatives demanded that AT&T Midwest, Legacy T end Call Center Cuts, settle with Communication Workers.
The five Democratic senators – Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Joe Donnelly of Indiana – reminded Stephenson of his job-creation promise after Congress OKd the tax cut on party-line votes last year. Instead, Stephenson’s still cutting call center jobs, particularly in the Midwest, they said.
“American workers, including AT&T employees in our states, fear their jobs being offshored,” the senators wrote. “We urge you to assuage those fears by making explicit contract guarantees to increase the number of call center jobs in the U.S.”
Workers continue to mobilize every day in our fight for a fair contract that includes job security and affordable healthcare.
The majority of workers under this Nationwide Legacy AT&T Labor Agreement work in Minneapolis in the Teleconference Office and the Business Collections Center. There are also approximately 40 technicians spread across five states that are members of CWA 7250 who protect and maintain the core network.
AT&T has not moved off the final offer they presented directly to workers in May 2018 that would allow the company to cut the job security protections of approximately half the current workforce.
The company also seeks to: raise healthcare premiums on incumbent and workers who are newly hired or transferred into the bargaining unit; eliminate education tuition assistance that pays towards real post-secondary education, college degrees and certifications and replace it with training that is not accredited and only recognized by a few companies; among other retrogressive proposals.
Unique to the workers in Minneapolis, and likely St Paul, CWA is seeking to bargain how Minneapolis (and St Paul) Sick and Safe time will be implemented. Currently, the company forces workers to use negotiated Vacation, Holidays and Excused with Pay time instead of using the paid illness and injury days already negotiated in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
CWA encouraged friends, neighbors, and allies to sign on to their www.GoodJobsATT.org petition online