AT&T Workers End 1-Day Strike, Contract Talks Continue
AT&T landline employees returned to work Thursday -- one day after walking off -- because the company committed to stop requiring “technicians to perform work assignments outside of their expertise and classification,” Communications Workers of America said in a news…
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release. About 17,000 CWA workers in California and Nevada went on grievance strike and picketed call centers and offices over what they said is a recent AT&T practice of shifting the duties of the higher-paid systems technician to the lower-paid premises technician without appropriate compensation (see 1703220055). The carrier “engaged in discussion with the union to get these employees back to work as soon as possible,” a spokesman said. "We honor all of our agreements and the settlement reached clarified some work processes on assignments for a group of technicians." The telco and union still must come to terms on a new contract to replace the one that expired last April. “We went on strike to demonstrate to the country that we will not do more work for less pay, especially when it puts us in a position not to deliver the best possible service,” said Robert Longer, a Sacramento-based AT&T technician and CWA local official.