LAKEPORT ? Frustration with ongoing contract negotiations with AT&T prompted union members and their families to brave cold, wet weather Thursday afternoon to bring public awareness to the matter.
Union contracts expired Saturday for 80,500 AT&T wireline employees represented by Communication Workers of America (CWA), including 35 in Lake County. The wireline workers, who provide AT&T”s landline installation and maintenance, went to work as usual on Monday. Union steward John Henry said CWA wants to avoid a strike, but negotiations are far from satisfactory.
“We”re on strike standby. We are stepping up our efforts for a possible strike, because the bargaining is not moving along,” Henry said.
The most contentious issue is the rising cost of health care, which Henry said the company is trying to pass on to its employees and retirees. Henry said his mother-in-law, a 30-year AT&T employee, was one of the retirees who would face the possibility of not being able to afford benefits.
“We don”t need to give concessions back for a company that is doing so well. If the company was losing money or in jeopardy, as a union we could see about negotiating with the company on concessions,” Henry said.
AT&T made $12.9 billion in profits last year and top executives expect “solid growth” this year, according to a Monday CWA press release found at www.cwa-union.org.
“AT&T”s wireline business is declining (20 percent of consumer access lines lost in the past three years), yet it is the part of the business where union employees have the richest health care benefits,” states a Sunday AT&T negotiation update, posted at www.att.com/gen/general?pid=10885.
The statement continues, “Union-represented core wireline employees pay similar amounts for their health care as union workers at the Big Three automakers pay ? and it”s clear what those sorts of unsustainable costs have done to America”s auto industry.”
Henry called the comparison unfair, since AT&T was still a profitable company.
“These are the people who would be losing the benefits they are proposing to take away,” CWA union steward Shawn Heape said, motioning to his son and other union workers” children, all younger than 10, who held signs and yelled to passing cars Thursday.
“Utilities have always been that solid, middle-class job. They are trying to cut our wages and our benefits to make us competitive, but we”re the best at what we do,” Henry said.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
