August 9, 2015, statement by the Communications
Workers of America District 3, as 28,000 AT&T Southeast workers continue
without a contract while negotiations continue.
Atlanta -- Today we are continuing
negotiations with AT&T. The issues that AT&T workers are facing
have a direct impact on our communities and our families. We are your friends
and neighbors, and our communities are important to us. Often times in
contract negotiations, we hear only about money.
But these negotiations are about respect,
a better quality of family life and keeping good jobs in our communities.
AT&T is a very profitable
company and our members do deserve to be compensated fairly.
But something that’s very important
to workers at AT&T is a chance to spend more time with their families.
Right now, AT&T forces employees to work an unlimited amount of overtime
hours. That’s excessive and keeps parents from spending time with their
children and balancing their work and family lives.
AT&T workers serve our customers
on a daily basis and are the backbone and the face of this company. We all want
to be treated with dignity and respect in the work place. That’s what these
negotiations are all about.
AT&T is an extremely profitable
company, with second quarter revenues topping $33 billion. AT&T also
recently completed a $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV. Workers are
being very reasonable, but AT&T is following a greedy agenda. Workers are
committed to getting a fair contract and are holding actions and building
support in communities throughout the nine southeastern states. It’s time for
AT&T to do the right thing, and that’s to treat employees fairly.
