AT&T staff may strike over contract

updated 04:50 pm EST, Fri February 6, 2009

ATT Staff May Strike

The Communications Workers of America union in a vote on Friday approved a strike for 20,000 AT&T Mobility workers in the event the group is unable to come to a last-minute deal with AT&T before a contract expires at midnight tonight. The two parties have been engaged in talks over terms for compensation, jobs and working conditions and differ sharply on the proximity of an agreement, with the CWA saying "very little progress" has been made while AT&T spokesman Walt Sharp calls the approval a normal part of negotiations and hopes for an agreement by the end of the day.

Action wouldn't be immediate if negotations fail by Saturday, as it would depend on a ratification of the vote's decision and a formal strike date announcement by the CWA's leadership.

A strike would potentially damage AT&T's efforts at retail and other sales representatives, who form a significant portion of CWA-supporting staff. AT&T says it's prepared for "all contingencies" should workers leave but hasn't said whether this involves bringing in temporary staff or adjusting other aspects of its business.

DSL service and other divisions within the carrier are unaffected.

By Electronista Staff

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slapppy

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2008

02/06, 06:01pm | report spam | close reply

Stupid

The current economic crisis doesn't give you the luxury to go on strike. Your all lucky to have a job and appreciate what you have today. There are plenty of unemployed people out there that would love to have your jobs. Jobs that you should be thankful for.

Guest

Joined: Nov 1999

02/06, 06:03pm | report spam | close reply

isn't this nice

a bunch of incompetent sales and service are going to strike, with so many others losing their jobs. no wonder unions are losing their influence, and I hope they fire them all and fill the positions with people who are laid off.

chefpastry

Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Nov 2005

02/06, 06:22pm | report spam | close reply

Unions are bad

Unions force companies to outsource work to other countries with their unreasonable requests. The companies who continue to work with unions end up with higher costs that are passed on to consumers which then makes it difficult for them to compete with lower cost foreign competition. I have no sympathy for unions.

jfelbab

Joined: Jan 2004

02/07, 08:50am | report spam | close reply

No common sense

With about a half million more workers out of work, do they really think they won't be quickly replaced? Has union leadership lost their minds? Have the rank-and-file members thought this through?

Looks like the Union seem to think they are going to run the business now that the new admin has taken over. They might have forgotten about one thing, the economy. Business need to be doing well to afford to increase pay and benefits.

I was a CWA member for many years and I am disgusted with this idiotic move. Sure everyone wants to earn more money and have better benefits but when the business climate is so poor as to force nearly a half a million jobs to be lost this is clearly not the time to demonstrate your stupidity.

Kohlerslave

Joined: Sep 2001

02/07, 10:16am | report spam | (1 reply) close | reply

No Clue

Take a look at the big picture. Unions are not the cause of outsourcing. Unions are not just about wages and benefits. They are also there for safety and fairness. Unions are recognizing the economy is bad and are also realizing that their power is waning. How can a union have any power when the companies hold it over their heads that they can take the work overseas and still receive benefits and tax breaks from the government?

There are many reasons why the economy is tanking and yes, unions are a part of it. But so our consumers with immense debt, poorly run corporations with enormous bonus schedules, Wall Street scheming, and lack of government over-site.

Wake up people. It's nice to know that someone is still looking out for the middle class working people.

02/07, 03:12pm | report spam | close reply

Kohlerass

Right, the unions are there for fairness. For whom? Union workers are always 15-20% LESS productive than non-union workers (every study done on this has held to these numbers) -- Just take a look at Union auto shops vs. Non-union auto shops. Who are making the better vehicles, the most reliable ones, and whose workers are actually happier in their work places?? They are basically just legalized extortion, leading a bunch of brainwashed "Union First" dumbasses who probably couldn't hold a job otherwise.

MeandmyMac

Joined: Feb 2008

02/07, 03:20pm | report spam | close reply

Re: No clue

"There are many reasons why the economy is tanking and yes, unions are a part of it. But so our consumers with immense debt, poorly run corporations with enormous bonus schedules, Wall Street scheming, and lack of government over-site."

What about the Obama debt, uh, spending plan, uh, economic stimulus and recovery act of over a trillion dollars the government doesn't have? Talk about poorly run, the Treasury paid $254 billion in 2008 to financial institutions through the TARP program but received only $176 billion worth of stocks and warrants. The government overpaid these institutions by $78 billion dollars. This estimate was extrapolated from an analysis of 10 transactions. (Congress created the $700 billion TARP program to unfreeze the credit markets and shore up the U.S. banking system.) Enormous bonus schedules? How do you feel when learning of this... Jake Tapper of ABC [sic] lists an actual Obama event which is real and is completely "Marie Antoinette Obama, laissez-les manger le gâteau, in let them eat cake" while the masses are wondering what do to with their destroyed 401 K's and houses they are about to loose. Barack Obama is serving a little dinner victory party over his kickback stimulus which just passed the house and he is serving "wagyu steak". Wagyu is Japanese steak. For those who do not know what Japanese steak is, it is a fatty beef, which is fed beer, given massages, comes from Japan, looks like white meat instead of red meat, and happens to cost 100 dollars a pound. Let me repeat, steak for the few upper crust at $100.00 a pound. Wall Street schemes and yet we have this new administration less than three weeks old, ran on "Change We Can Believe In" and of "Audacity of Hope" and yet, it fills it's cabinets with a bunch of Clinton holdovers and every other 90's reject, talk about your cronyism when trying to espouse the view of a bold, fresh, new approach to running government. And a bunch of them didn't pay their taxes, and the Administration ran on no lobbiest working in the administration and yet they have, time and time again, had to issue waivers from that campaign promise, to allow a former lobbiest to work in the Administration. I guess we can use Obama's words right back at him when Obama says, "Just Words, Just Speeches". Lack of government oversight??? Have you not seen the videos of Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Maxine Walters defending Franklin Raines, Freddie Mac, Fannie May saying the Bush administration and the Republicans were on a witch hunt and that there was nothing wrong with them or their actions! Now the government is about to pass close to $1,000,000,000.00 in spending on money they don't have. And somehow we are asked to trust that this "government" knows best and that this money will be spent wisely on programs that help middle and lower class Americans and get this economy going again. I think unions, which I do not care much for, are the least of the worries.

02/07, 04:46pm | report spam | close reply

Ouch. Namecalling right off the bat. I guess that means you win. Want to show me some of those studies? American workers are getting lazy no matter where they work and employers are getting greedy no matter how hard their workers are. Don't hand me that c*** that it's all unions fault. There is more than one player is this mess and the blame lies in many peoples laps.

02/07, 09:37pm | report spam | close reply

kohlerass

That's right, I do win. Not BECAUSE of name-calling, that is only a fitting description of the dpeth of your logic, but because you are wrong. And it is not ALL unions fault, but this whole discussion is about UNIONS. Get it? And American workers are not getting lazy, we are the most productive workers on the planet. (Not anecdotal - you can look this up as well as the other statistics you swept aside with a simple google search) The fact is, unions are out-dated, no longer needed, and actually harm the workers they purport to represent. Now, if you have something to say other than "it's not all the unions fault" then go ahead, dumbass.

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AT&T staff may strike over contract

updated 04:50 pm EST, Fri February 6, 2009