AT&T union talks to continue, strike avoided

AT&T have failed to reach an agreement with the Communication Workers of America, but have stated that negotiations will continue. The CWA is negotiating four different contracts with the company, which affects as many as 40,000 jobs, roughly 16% of AT&T’s total workforce.

AT&T said they’ve failed to agree on a new deal prior to the expiry of the East, Legacy T, Midwest and West contracts. Union members had authorized CWA on March 31to call strikes if their demands were not met, but the parties have stated that talks will go on. However, the threat is very much there, as the CWA had led a two week strike for 35,000 employees at Verizon as recently as last summer.


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  • tizzyzz

    Unions that’s what is wrong with this country good back in the day before federal laws on wages now just a big pain in the *** people make over 75000 and crying about it I say lay them off and make them work for what on of the United States make then they would cry

    • jak_341

      I agree. Let them walk off. Give them 30 days, and if they don’t come back, fire them. Problem solved. Most of them will come back on their knees for their job.

      • TimS

        Then you sir have never fought for anything. Ive walked the line twice and will do it again for what members have died to protect. Solidarity.

    • Anthony Walker

      Dude, the company is making $20B.  When you’re making that type of money 75K is a pittance to pay the people who actually do the work in a company.

  • master94

    Unions, the reason no company invest in America anymore. Hopefully the two sides agree soon, At&t service is already bad enough, cant imagine how much worse it would get if they striked.

  • mercurytytn

    So…..because you’re jealous you blame the union? Ihope you two are independently wealthy, because if it wasn’t for the unions corporations would treat us like they do in china, low to non-existant wages, no insurance, the right to fire you for no reason at all,the ability to move your job across the country and you have to go or get fired. Seriously, you two sound like some entitled rich kids or Republican media brainwashing. I’m fighting to keep what’s mine, you can call it whining if you want but only a fool would let a fortune 500 company that made 20 billion in profit last year take away everything they work hard for. And as for the union being the reason companies don’t invest in the U.S., that’s b.s. and you’re stupid to believe that. If you want every company in the world to behave like foxconn, then you’re what’s wrong with “America”.

    • ScottColbert

      Very well said!

    • jak_341

      If I am a business owner’s why should anything but the free and open market dictate how I should run my business? If conditions or pay is that bad, I won’t have a business due to lack of workers. The Government, nor unions, should not interfere in business. Let business manage business.

      • mercurytytn

        So you’re okay with paying your “hypothetical” employees virtually nothing, while you rake in billions in profits? And don’t claim the recession because the communication industry wasn’t hit like everything else. Most people kept their phones and cable and internet. Words like “free and open market ” don’t apply to big corporations that will do whatever it takes make that extra billion. You, in good conscience, want to tell me it’s okay to make a buck at the expense of your workers? How about some of these upper execs take a pay cut instead of taking money out of middle class mouths. CEO’s making 20 million or more a year telling me I make too much? And like I said earlier AT&T made 20 billion last year. In profit. Not operating income. Profit! Not even or a loss. Profit. If you still think companies should be allowed to do whatever they want and no one should have right to object, you’re at best naive, at worst a CEO of one these corporations. I believe in capitalism, but how much is enough? Is it when there’s one rich guy and we are all poor? Besides you can only make so much money before you start to lose money, it’s the law of diminishing returns.

      • schitzengigles10

        someone should read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

        • VersedNJ

          Well he already read Mein Kampf.

      • Steve Albright


    • chancho1978

      It sounds like u have never been on the other side!

    • chuckles87

      I couldent say it better myself

    • chuckles87

      All it is is corperate greed. I work for a union job. Durring our last negotiation our competitors (larger corperations than my company) were on the brink of a strike and it was adverted two hours past the deadline. Meanwhile our company was willing to give us a raise and bonus. Therfore the other companys kicked our ceo out of the bargaining table and now we have our own contract.

  • avenger

    Nobody cares!

  • jak_341

    And this is why unions need to be abolished. Unions are costing our nation dearly in lost jobs. If you don’t like working conditions or pay, you have the right to simply leave your job. Same rights for employers; if they want to release you or change your pay as they see fit.

    • dbcad7

      That couldn’t be more wrong… Unions, and BTW this very union, have fought to keep jobs and bring back jobs to the US.. They give people (working people) a larger voice when dealing with the government (you know those guys who make rules that are supposed to protect our interests).. Corporations have their lobbyists that do the same for them.. It’s not unions that need to be abolished, but a system where dollars can buy laws and regulations that hurt the country.. We can continue on this path, and employ more communist Chinese workers than we do American, but that is not the fault of unions.. It is the fault of people who think that corporations with free reign will do the right thing and protect the people of their own country.. surprise.. they don’t.

    • Brandito

      History, I can see, was not a strong subject for you.

    • BulletTooth_Tony

      You do realize that unions are what made the middle class strong in this nation?  That as union membership rose, so did our productivity, GDP and standard of living?  This nation was most successful in the 50s and 60s… coincidentally, the 2 decades in the past 100 years of the highest union membership rates.

      American History… it’s a subject you’re in desperate need of taking.

  • Brandito

    Live better, Work Union. Proud Union Carpenter.

    The anti union sentiment in these comments makes it clear much of this country is in a race to the bottom.

    • aiden9

      Its possible they’ve been burnt by bad unions in the past, I know I certainly have been. Ever increasing dues, healthcare coverage near the same level as if I had gone to buy my own, training was a joke, you could only ever get a union rep to come out if you were one of his drinking buddies(which happened to be the people who did as little work as possible), etc.

      I know they aren’t all bad but that experience soured my view on unions for years, seeing them as that stereotypical “Do as little work as you can and demand more pay”. 

      • Anthony Walker

        I pay just a little over 400 bucks a year in union dues and for that I get a decent middle class salary, health care benefits for my family, a pension and a 401K and I can’t be fired at the boss’ whim.  It’s well worth it.

        And there’s no way a company can make 20B a year like AT&T with workers having the attitude of “Do as little work as you can and demand more pay”.

        • aiden9

          I was giving an anecdotal example of why some people may be turned off by unions, not why at&t’s is viewed as bad. 

          You’ve had ok experiences with a union so you view them as good, thats great. I’ve had decent ones before too which is what eventually turned me from thinking its a complete garbage organization, to deciding its a mixed bag out there and you have to decide on it union by union basis.

          tl;dr=People make judgements based on their personal experiences with unions.

          ps, kudos to your union on only taking around $400 for a full time middle class job. The horrid union I had listed was taking well over $400 from even the part time kids working theirway through school(mind you part timers didn’t even qualify for any benefits).

  • bluevoodo

    At&t is the shittiest cell company, I’m glad they couldn’t buy t Mobile, I’m all for unions standing up for workers rights, hopefully America won’t regress on labor laws and become China.

  • basscase

    Union’s will kill America if given the chance, or at least “fundamentally transform” it. As liberal politicians always do, they have created an entitlement society in the unions, as has been shown here with a couple of pro union responders.

    ” I’m keeping what’s mine”, but what is yours??? The idea for the product, the creation of the product, the years of struggle to market the product, the hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in both failures and successes of a product, the building of a corporation from nothing but dreams and what money you could make and borrow.

    What is “yours”???

    These people were then good enough to build a corporation in your town, and offer you a job working in this corporation. They didn’t have to, but they did.

    Then some mobster/ union thug that has never produced or built anything in his freaking life walks in the door, makes promises that in the end only enrich the mobsters/ union bosses/ political.friends, to the workers. Sells them on the idea of “keeping what’s yours”, feeding the greed of the worst amongst us.

    The thug then enters the office of the corporation and starts making demands of the employers, and now they have government backing with all of the threats. Suddenly the corporation profits are evil, but the union and political greed is purer than the wind driven snow.

    Without these corporations you wouldn’t have a job, you wouldn’t make the money you do, and it wouldn’t take five people to do one persons job.

    Without unions products would be built less expensively, faster and without corners cut, trying to save money on materials because the union just demanded a pay raise that cut the profits to nothing. Or you could refuse…

    Then comes the strike, how’s that strike pay working out for you???? Hey, you payed into the union for years, but now they only give you a pitence to keep you on strike. The union has hundreds of millions in the bank, but who could blame them, they are just “keeping what’s there’s”!!!

    • jak_341

      Can’t say it any better. It all comes down to why should a union or Federal Government tell me how to run my business. I know what is best for my employees and my business.

      • Anthony Walker

        Employers only care about their own profits and that’s why workers need to stick together or they’ll be railroaded.

    • dbcad7

      Hey great imagination !.. Reality however is different.. In your world, these greedy union workers who have fought to keep  things like medical benefits (BTW that used to be the norm and not the exception), are the problem.. The truth is that the massive layoffs that the US experienced were mostly non union.. If it was unions that were the problem, then all non union jobs would have been safe.. wouldn’t they ?.. Corporate greed was a part of it.. but mostly it was flat out speculation.. self fulfilling prophesy actually.. Company after company were lemmings.. “hey that company thinks the economy is not going to be strong so they have laid off 10,000 employees they must know something we better reduce our workforce”.. Self fulfilling.. I can go on about speculation, and using people as cost cutting measures, and how people who have no jobs means they don’t buy anything, and how that affects the economy and tax revenues.. but I won’t…. Poor corporations, evil unions, yeah that must be it.

    • craig

      I agree with most of what you said. Except:Without unions products would be built less expensively, faster and without corners cut, trying to save money on materials because the union just demanded a pay raise that cut the profits to nothing. Or you could refuse…
      GM and other corporations have ditched unions and moved factorys overseas, where the labor costs are 2-5% of what they were here, and yet the products cost  the same or more????????

  • tizzyzz

    I do run a successful business in Florida a right to work state I pay my staff a very fair rate never a complaint I would never allow anyone to tell me how and what I had to pay. All of my staff make over $13.00 an hour plus sales bonuses. So if they sell or upsale a project they make more it benefits all. I learned long ago when I worked for someone if you treat your staff respectfully and compensate them properly you have no issues. Most of corporate America is greedy and only look out for them. I don’t but maybe I’m different

    • Brandito

      I see right to work is working for you, however I feel bad for your employees, especially considering the fact that you seem to honestly feel you pay them well. Could you survive on what you pay your work force?

      • TimS

        and he thinks he pays them well which means they probably havent seen a raise in years.

  • tizzyzz

    I also forgot to mention as a benefit my staff only pays $20 a month out of pocket for their health and dental and a $20 copay for office visits and an additional 2 weeks paid vacation at Christmas when we shut down for the holiday’s

  • jamesgould72

    lol… i couldnt care less

  • TBN27

    Unions are still needed im this country. There are still many examples in this country where workers are mistreated and underpaid, and d o not care about about workers safetyin the workplace. Free market is fine but when it goes to the point of exploiting workers like many non union jobs do then it should be stopped in their tracks. This is the reason unions still exist. Unions are not to blame for leaving the jobs gone in this country. It is coporate greed. More for less is their reasoning. Thats why a lot of those jobs without unions were gone in the 80’s and 90’s.

  • Slighter

    Typical union bashing at the mere mention of contracts and potential strikes. How much bitching was there when these contracts were originally fairly bargained and negotiated? Exec salaries and bonus keep increasing while we’re supposed to accept concessions or face extinction. Union membership rates hover around just 12% nationally, how does that number make us the problem? IBEW #9 Journeyman Lineman

  • Paul Riley

    A video I think is great to do with unions

    I actually work for a union in the UK we get on great with most our employers, have good negotiations and so on. The ones we don’t get on with and do have disputes with are the ones that just want to pay as little as possible, treat staff like dogs yet make millions and millions in profit.

    Unions are not the problem, corporate greed is, I have seen people nearly get so shafted by their employer and because of us we protected them.

    It is not wrong to be paid fair and treated fairly at work, there are a lot of really shitty employers out there, unions are needed, it would be lovely to work in a world where they weren’t, but we don’t.

    And yes there are also really good employers out there too.

  • Brian

    @tizzyss, you really think you are paying a good wage. I am from Denmark and the minimum wage for union jobs is 25$. And there is free healthcare. 73% is a member of a union and we have a lower unemployment rate than usa. So it’s not the unions but greedy company owners that are the reason for job loss.

  • tizzyzz

    @Brian I do understand different countries have different rule unfortunately in Florida minimum wage is $7.67 an hour and benefits do not have to be included. If you figure in the sales.bonuses the hourly wage jumps to $20 to $25 and hour I have a few employees that upsale all the time and average $30 to $35 and hour may jot be great for those in northern states or out west but Florida has no state tax and most jobs they pay well here require a 4 year degree. I don’t use the education degrees as a way to hire staff I use experience. Just because people have a degree does not mean they are a better fit for the job and just because they don’t have a degree doesn’t mean they can’t do the job. I am not say one is better or not just speaking from my experience. I agree jobs in Florida stink that’s why I started my own business and I don’t sit in a fancy office I’m out there with my employees on most projects

  • Motorola Atrix forum

    Both the Unions and ATT are unrealistic in this situation. If Obama is re-elected, he will call for not only health care but communication services to be under increasing government domaine. So where will these workers and companies be then?

    • Slighter

       Put the bong down, step away from the bong