Strike at AT&T in 2 states ends
Union members in California and Nevada return after a one-day walkout.
Thousands of AT&T technicians in California and Nevada went back to work Thursday, ending a one-day strike after their union and the Dallas telecommunications giant reached a truce.
An estimated 17,000 union members had gone on strike early Wednesday over a grievance about increased responsibilities for technicians who typically install and maintain the company’s U-verse television system.
The spat highlighted tensions between AT&T Inc. and members of the Communications Workers of America, District 9, who have been working without a contract since April 2016.
The union announced the settlement agreement on its Facebook page late Wednesday. An AT&T spokesman confirmed that the strike “has been resolved” and that employees returned to work Thursday.
Union officials said the walkout was triggered by AT&T’s demand that technicians who typically install and maintain the company’s U-Verse TV service also work on the cables and hardware for landline phone service. (AT&T’s wireless division was not affected.)
“The company will no longer require technicians to perform work assignments outside of their expertise and classification,” the union said in a statement.
The strike included only landline workers who belong to the CWA in California and Nevada. Union workers have said that they have been increasingly asked to perform the duties of higher-paid employees and that AT&T has proposed reducing sick leave and disability benefits and wants them to pay more for their healthcare.
AT&T has been under pressure to reduce costs as the phone market matures. Its wireless service faces increased competition from Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint, and fewer people have been opting for landline phones.
Last month, a bargaining agreement covering some 21,000 AT&T wireless phone workers nationwide expired. AT&T would like to reach a new accord with those employees as well as the “wireline” workers — that is, workers who deal with non-wireless services such as landline phone, broadband Internet and U-verse TV — in California and Nevada.
“We’re currently negotiating with the union in a good-faith effort to reach a fair labor agreement covering wireline employees,” AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said Wednesday. “We’re the country’s largest employer of full-time union labor, and our goal in these negotiations is to continue to provide our employees with high-quality union careers with wages and benefits that are among the best in the country.”