AT&T Wireless Workers Win Industry-Defining Gains in New Agreement

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CWA

WIRELESS WORKERS’ NATIONWIDE MOBILIZATION AND LARGEST RETAIL STRIKE IN U.S. HISTORY CULMINATES IN NEW AGREEMENT TO CURB INDUSTRY OUTSOURCING AND OFFSHORING AT AT&T

United as the Communications Workers of America, 21,000 AT&T wireless workers across 36 states & DC win first-ever guaranteed call center work; 10.1% raise over four years; and unprecedented job security protections

NATIONWIDE – Over 21,000 AT&T wireless workers, who have been at the center of the telecom giant’s largest contract dispute to date, reached a precedent-setting tentative contract agreement today that rolls back the trends of offshoring and outsourcing and sets a new standard for wireless retail and call center jobs in America. United as Communications Workers of America (CWA) members, AT&T’s wireless workers are celebrating the landmark victory that caps nationwide protests and a three-day strike that shut down hundreds of stores across the country and marked the largest retail strike in U.S. history.

"AT&T wireless workers’ victory is a watershed moment, for themselves and their families, and for working people across the telecom sector who are fighting to keep good jobs in our communities,” said Chris Shelton, President of the Communications Workers of America. “Call center representatives, retail workers and techs from small towns and big cities joined together and refused to back down until they made good jobs at AT&T a reality. This contract affirms the power of working people everywhere to join together and establish a new standard for America’s retail and telecom jobs.”

The four-year proposed agreement provides 10.1% in raises over the course of the contract and shifts $2,500 from commission to base pay for retail workers. Under the new agreement, AT&T wireless retail workers will be paid an average $19.20 per hour, about 74% more than the national average pay for retail workers. This comes as a recent report by the Center for Popular Democracy finds that only 8% of U.S. retail workers are paid at least $15/hour, have paid leave and full-time hours.

For the first time at any wireless company in the country, workers have won guaranteed customer service work at U.S. call centers, representing an 80% increase in the share of total call volume over the current levels. AT&T wireless workers have also won first-time job security protections that require AT&T to find them a new job if their call center or retail store closes. Combined with better, more stable pay and reduced intrusive surveillance at work, the proposed agreement dramatically improves the quality of workers’ lives on the job.

FULL story at link below.

Read more: https://www.cwa-union.org/news/releases/att-wireless-workers-win-industry-defining-gains-in-new-agreement

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[Marie Marie]

1. Good for them.

[msongs]

2. att will cover that loss of income a thousand times when net neutrality is killed by repubs nt

[Fullduplexxx]

3. Thanks os

[iluvtennis]

4. Excellent news for these workers..just excellent

[Stuart G]

5. I've watched them for many years..AT&T ..usually settles with unions.

In Illinois, most if not all the people who come to the house for the phones, are union. It actually says union on some trucks.. I've known someone who worked in the office, and she was also union. At least this is what I have information on.

[Hestia]

6. Hubby works at AT&T - from what he has told me, AT&T is one of the largest union employers left in

the US. Problem is, they keep shedding people to the point it is starting to be a problem, i.e., getting time off because there is no one to do the work if you take a vacation, or they have to bring someone in who is not from the area being worked.