AT&T workers mobilize for fair contract, good jobs

AT&T's four-year run of unbroken labor peace will be tested in 2017 amid preparations by the carrier's main union, the Communications Workers of America, to ramp up the pressure in two ongoing contract negotiations, Fortune reports.

17,000 workers in AT&T's wireline business in Nevada and California have been working without a contract since April. A contract covering another 21,000 wireless employees will expire in early February. There has been little progress on issue like the outsourcing of call center jobs overseas, stagnant pay, rising healthcare costs, and greater reliance on wireless retail stores not owned by AT&T.

"There's huge concern about the preservation of good jobs," Bob Master, legislative director for CWA's District One, tells Fortune. AT&T has moved call center jobs to Mexico and the Philippines, while selling more phones and wireless service via third-party retail chains whose workers aren't in a union and get paid far less, Master says.

Read the entire piece here.

Link:

AT&T Union Workers Plan Protest To Jump Start Talks (Fortune, Jan. 24, 2017)