CWA is still fighting with AT&T’s over proposed layoff of more than a thousand workers. The unions says it is a betrayal of the company’s promise to create thousands of good, middle class jobs.
AT&T announced plans just before Christmas to lay off technicians and call center workers around the US.
A recent series of round-the-clock discussions with the company resulted in a delay of the effective date of the earliest layoffs to Jan. 9. So far the union has only prevented a small number of layoffs.
The union says AT&T has put forward a proposal to cut thousands of work hours from employees’ schedules, while continuing to contract out work and sending jobs overseas. The contracting out of this work and AT&T’s offshoring of good jobs is the real issue.
CWA District 6 (covering the Southwestern states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas) filed a federal lawsuit and National Labor Relations Board charges asserting that the company is violating the AT&T Southwest collective bargaining agreement by laying off workers while at the same time using contract employees to do work that CWA members are trained and qualified to perform.
Other districts where AT&T is proposing to lay off workers later this month and in February and March have filed executive grievances challenging the layoffs and the company’s use of contractors.
