AT&T Mobility Orange Contract 2017 Bargaining: #57

This morning AT&T sent out an email to our membership that begs clarification. While not exactly fake news, it is misleading and aimed at dividing our membership.

As we last reported, AT&T did pass proposals last week. They did not pass proposals to address any of the issues that we have been discussing with them since May. In May, you successfully struck AT&T and let the company know we are not accepting less than you deserve. Our proposals still on the table reflect your priorities. Following this, AT&T continued to refuse to provide the information we need to bargain your future for the next four years. AT&T needs to be more forthcoming with the truth.

They refer to “formal” proposals not being passed since May, but they leave out the why. We have outstanding requests for information that impact our ability to make additional formal proposals. We have had proposals on the table for months that AT&T refuses to address except to say they have no interest. AT&T would prefer we bargain in the dark. AT&T has made requests of CWA that violate the National Labor Relations Act and we anticipate we will hear back from the Labor Board soon.

CWA has told AT&T that we agreed to meet via phone conference for a few weeks while we work on issues other than wages and benefits, such as working conditions. One issue familiar to Call Center workers is MI-60. After weeks of AT&T promising to bring an operations manager to bargaining to explain their use of the MI-60 program in Call Centers, we were finally joined by Bradley Petrick, the AVP over ATS call centers. The description of how this program is supposed to be used in the centers, while enlightening, did not resemble in any way what you have told us actually occurs.

Since AT&T indicated in their morning email that they are expecting a response on what was passed last week, CWA asked to reconvene at our mutually agreed upon bargaining location, and guess what? They are not available as their bargaining chair is not able to travel at the moment due to medical issues that kept him out of work. How many attendance points do you think he received? Our guess is NONE. The CWA Bargaining Committee had already planned on getting together this week to study the proposals and the open issues and work on our response. We have the right under the National Labor Relations Act to insist on face to face bargaining, and we hope the AT&T bargaining chair is cleared to travel soon.

By now you should have received information on how to join our Town Hall Call next Thursday evening, October 19th. We look forward to hearing from you. Text the word MobilityCall to 69866 to RSVP.

In Solidarity,

Mike Baxter, Local 1101
Frank Oliva, Local 1298
Deb Casey, Local 2204
Jeff Reamer, Local 13000
Julie Daloisio, Local 13500
Holly Sorey, Local 4202
Glen Skeen, Local 4320
Debbie Goulet, Local 7803
Hector Capote, Local 7250
Brandon Beck, Local 9511
Joe Sison, Local 9412
Pat Telesco, District 1, Chair
Tonya Moore, District 1