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Thousands Of Georgia AT&T Workers Continue Their Strike
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About 6,000 AT&T workers across Georgia moved into day five of their strike Tuesday. It’s a part of a larger strike across the southeast that involves more than 20,000 employees across nine states: Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The strike, organized by Communications Workers of America, is a reaction to AT&T allegedly "not bargaining in good faith and not sending representatives to the bargaining table with the authority to make decisions." A practice CWA called “established.”
Employees on strike range from technicians to customer service representatives, and inludes people who “maintain and support AT&T’s residential and business wireline telecommunications network.”
But it shouldn’t affect cellphone and wireless services according to Public Service Commissioner Lauren McDonald, who said in a press release with AT&T officials. Instead, the strike could affect cable customers who have AT&T U-verse.
Ed Barlow is the president of CWA Local 3204, which has some 2,200 members. Barlow said he understands if customers are frustrated, since the strike could slow down services provided to the public.
"It's not our intention to interrupt their service,” he said outside of the AT&T building in downtown Atlanta. “It's only our intention to get the company to sit down with us and bargain in good faith."
A spokesperson from AT&T said in a statement, they were “surprised and disappointed that union leaders would call for a strike at this point in the negotiations.”
The statement also said the company has a contingency plan and that they have “systematically and thoroughly planned for a potential work stoppage.”
But Barlow said he doesn't believe AT&T wasn't prepared for a strike of this magnitude.
“The managers that I’ve spoken to have advised me that they’re nowhere near prepared,” he said. “The rest of the people they’ve hired, it’s my belief, that they’re only driving around so that AT&T can be visible to the public.”
He said best case scenario is that AT&T send someone to the table to negotiate a new contract that has the power to make a decision.
According to the telecommunications company, the southeast contract covers less than 8% of their employees.
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