The Communications Workers of America and AT&T Mobility remain deadlocked over a new contract covering more than 20,000 workers employed by the No. 2 wireless provider. The labor-management faceoff is playing out as the Democratic-led Congress prepares to revisit highly combustible legislation to make unionization easier in wireless and other industry sectors.
The CWA said its members planned to mobilize this past weekend to show support for their AT&T Mobility contract campaign, distributing leaflets to customers outside targeted retail stores.
“The lines of communication remain open,” said Candice Johnson, a CWA spokeswoman.
In a Web update last Friday, parent company AT&T Inc. said it “is obligated to bargain exclusively with the CWA regarding the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement. We have done that and remain ready to meet and bargain in good faith with your CWA representatives.”
A little over a week ago, CWA members overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike on behalf of those AT&T Mobility workers if concerns about compensation, employment and working conditions were not adequately addressed in negotiations over a new contract.
While the existing CWA-AT&T Mobility contract – one encompassing wireless workers in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Mountain States and West Coast (districts collectively known as Mobility Orange) – expired at midnight on Feb. 7, a strike has yet to materialize. The CWA advised unionized AT&T Mobility employees to report to work. Provisions of the expired contract remain in effect for the affected 20,000 AT&T Mobility employees.
Difference of opinion
Both sides traded barbs as negotiations failed to produce a new contract.
AT&T accused CWA negotiators of walking from the bargaining table two Sundays ago.
“The AT&T bargaining team remains available for discussions through the agreed-upon extension. . AT&T is proud of this fair and reasonable offer during these difficult economic times when companies are cutting off 401(k)s, freezing salaries, and sometimes failing entirely, throwing employees out of work. Layoffs have surged – more than 600,000 last month alone – and unemployment levels are soaring. Many workers are voluntarily making sacrifices to help keep troubled companies afloat,” AT&T stated.
Walt Sharp, an AT&T spokesman, pointed out that wireless workers were offered a 9.4% pay increase over the next four years in the company’s last best offer.
The CWA asserted that AT&T Mobility refused to agree to a request to extend the current contract 30 days in order to reach a new agreement. Organized labor called the claim by AT&T Mobility that CWA walked away from contract talks “another management lie.”
“CWA is disappointed that Mobility management would rather bargain in the media and use scare tactics to frighten employees instead of sitting down and working out an equitable agreement,” said CWA Executive VP Annie Hill. “AT&T Mobility employees are a big part of the company’s success. They are looking for an equitable agreement that recognizes their part in making AT&T Mobility an industry leader. AT&T, even in these challenging economic times, is a profitable company and should be a leader in maintaining quality jobs.”
Support from the top
AT&T Mobility is the exclusive service provider of the popular Apple Inc. iPhone and the most union-friendly wireless carrier in the nation. About 40,000 AT&T Mobility workers are represented by the CWA, with various regions subject to different collective bargaining agreements.
Organized labor has not come close to making the same kind of inroads at No. 1 Verizon Wireless, No. 3 Sprint Nextel Corp. and No. 4 T-Mobile USA Inc. But that could change for the CWA and the other national wireless providers if Congress succeeds in passing the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would make it less difficult and less risky for employees to affiliate with unions. The House passed the bill in 2007, but it stalled in the Senate. Then-senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was an original cosponsor of the legislation. On the campaign trail before being elected president in November, Obama promised to sign such legislation if he got to the White House. Organized labor was a forceful supporter of Obama’s presidential campaign.
An aide to Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), who previously championed the bill in the House, said the lawmaker plans to reintroduce the measure soon. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), a major political supporter in Obama’s successful presidential run, is the measure’s main sponsor in that chamber. The legislation could be among the most controversial taken up by Congress this year.
