COLUMBIA, S.C. — Members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union, employed by AT&T Southeast are on strike to protest against what they say are unfair labor practices.
You may have seen employees with the CWA, picketing at the AT&T building on Huger Street in Columbia or outside an AT&T facility in Cayce.
The CWA filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against AT&T. They claim management did not bargain in good faith, engaged in surface bargaining, and did not send representatives to the bargaining table with the authority to make decisions during negotiations for a new union contract.
“We have no choice but to walk away from the bargaining table when AT&T fails to reach any kind of agreement with us as to what our future contract will be,” Keith Smith said.
Smith has been a facility technician with AT&T in the Midlands for more than ten years, he says the company’s poor negotiation has left him and other coworkers in a tough place.
“Everybody here has families, we have kids to feed, we have wives, we have homes, we have to pay mortgages, and so we need to be at work, and we hope to return to work soon. As soon as AT&T decides they'll negotiate in good faith, we'll be back to work,” he said.
CWA officials say they’ve worked with AT&T for decades. All the employees of AT&T are members of the CWA which is the sole bargaining agent for AT&T. They negotiate everything from pay, 401k, health care to job security.
The union represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and more.
“We have approximately 17,000 CWA members on strike across the southeast. These members are technicians, customer service representatives that install, maintain and repair AT&T's network.”
Debra Stripling is the president of the local CWA 3706 in Columbia. She tells says workers are under contracts that expire after 3-4 years. She says their contract expired earlier this month. South Carolina CWA representatives say employees are not getting paid while on strike.
“CWA members are on strike against AT&T Southeast for bargaining and bad faith, we have actually filed a charge with unfair labor practice, charge with the National Labor Relations Board, because AT&T has not sent bargain representatives to the table authorized to negotiate a contract with us, " she said.
In a statement to news 19 an AT&T spokesperson said:
“CWA’s claims of unfair labor practices are not grounded in fact. we have been engaged in substantive bargaining since day 1 and are eager to reach an agreement that benefits our hard-working employees. as evidence, we have reached 3 agreements this year covering more than 13,000 employees, including our most recent tentative agreement with district 9 (west). we remain committed to working with district 3 (southeast) in the same manner,”
The company goes on to say:
“We have various business continuity measures in place to avoid disruptions to operations and will continue to provide our customers with the great service they expect.”
Strikes began on Friday and is across nine southeastern states. That includes South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and many more.
“We would prefer not to be out here. Our members want to be taking care of their customers and performing the services that they are hired to do. However, until AT&T bargains in good faith, we won't be able to return to the office until that's done,”
SC CWA state representatives say negations are still ongoing.