Staff photo by Doug Strickland/ Taylor Brown with the Tri-state Musicians Union, Chris Panter, and Bodine Willis, from left, picket outside of the AT&T Building on Martin Luther King Boulevard on Monday, Aug. 26, 2019, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Local workers joined thousands of AT&T employees on strike across the Southeast as the Communications Workers of America, which represents workers at the company, accuses AT&T of unfair labor practices.More than 22,000 employees of AT&T in the Southeast, including more than 180 in the Chattanooga area, are on strike today against the telephone giant over what the Communications Workers of America members claim are unfair labor practices by AT&T for not negotiating in good faith for a new employee contract.
Members of the Communications Workers of America Local 3802 walked off the job at midnight Saturday and set up pickets today in Chattanooga, Cleveland and Benton to protest the company not sending what the union said were decision-making representatives to a bargaining session for a new contract with the union.
“Today thousands of workers all around the Southeast are showing that they are fed up with AT&T’s refusal to bargain in good faith,” CWA District 3 Vice President Richard Honeycutt said in a statement. “It is not easy to go on strike. These families are making sacrifices because they know how important it is to move forward with these negotiations. We are strong, we are determined, and we will prevail.”
CWA represents technicians, customer service representatives and others who install, maintain and support AT&T’s residential and business wireline telecommunications network in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Staff photo by Doug Strickland/ Kaitti Johnson, Robert Brown, and Jason Muir, from left, picket outside of the AT&T Building on Martin Luther King Boulevard on Monday, Aug. 26, 2019, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Local workers joined thousands of AT&T employees on strike across the Southeast as the Communications Workers of America, which represents workers at the company, accuses AT&T of unfair labor practices.The previous labor agreement expired on Aug. 3 and today’s strike is designed to encourage the company to resume contract talks. The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against AT&T for not bargaining in good faith and not sending representatives to the bargaining table with the authority to make decisions.