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Negotiations Begin For More Than 13,000 CWA-Represented AT&T West Workers San Ramon, CA -- As contract bargaining opened today for more than 13,000 AT&T West workers, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) bargaining team urged AT&T to negotiate an improved contract that includes wage increases, benefit protections and a commitment to keeping good, family-supporting jobs in the region. The current contract expires on April 4, 2020 and covers wireline technicians and customer service representatives in California and Nevada. In January, as part of the company’s Q4 earnings report, AT&T announced record operating and free cash flow of $48.7 billion, up nearly 12 percent for 2019, and more than $5 billion in stock buybacks in the past four months. Despite record-breaking profits, the company has cut over 37,000 jobs since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) went into effect in 2018, including 4,040 in the fourth quarter of 2019. Capital expenditures declined by more than $1 billion in 2019 as compared to 2018. AT&T workers and union members are confused and discouraged by the company’s broken promises, including the pledge made by AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson to create 7,000 new jobs if President Trump’s corporate tax cuts passed. Stephenson also signed onto a statement as a member of the Business Roundtable committing to invest in employees and support the communities where they live and work. “AT&T West workers built this company and we are proud of AT&T’s historic role in providing universal service, but the company is failing to invest in its network and in the experienced, well-trained, union employees who make that network great,” said CWA District 9 Vice President Frank Arce. “Instead AT&T is spending its billions on buying back its own stock to jack up the price and please large shareholders. We are ready to be part of AT&T’s future, and help build next-generation networks everywhere people need service. It’s time for AT&T to invest in us and our communities.” AT&T has continued to cater to the demands of controversial vulture hedge fund Elliott Management, which purchased a small stake in AT&T in September 2019. Elliott is pushing AT&T to extract profits from the company by eliminating jobs, outsourcing work, and divesting critical assets. Elliott has also won a commitment from AT&T to spend $30 billion on stock buybacks, which will drive up its share price to enrich a small group of wealthy investors, leaving fewer resources for building next generation wireless and fiber broadband networks and training workers for the jobs of the future. Credit-rating agency Moody’s has raised concerns that the large cost of the stock buyback plan puts AT&T at risk for a credit downgrade. ### — Feb 24
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CWA Contract With AT&T Extended for Southwest Mobility Workers AUSTIN, Tex. -- The Communications Workers of America and AT&T have agreed to extend the AT&T Mobility Southwest contract, which was set to expire at midnight last night, February 21, 2020, until 11:59 pm on February 22, 2020 to allow additional time to resolve outstanding issues. The CWA AT&T Southwest Mobility contract covers technicians, call center customer support workers and representatives at AT&T's retail stores in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas. They are negotiating for healthcare, better wages and a commitment by the company to keep jobs in the region. When bargaining for a new contract kicked off on February 4, CWA District 6 held informational pickets in cities across the region, including in Dallas, which is home to AT&T's headquarters, and Oklahoma City. Earlier this week, the workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if necessary. ### — Feb 22
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President Shelton: We Must Defeat Donald Trump At the CWA District 9 Conference this week, CWA President Chris Shelton told attendees that with Donald Trump, Republicans, and corporations banding together to gut workers' rights at a frightening pace, union members must do everything they can to beat Trump in November. "We need to make sure our members know about every single thing Trump has done to make working people's lives worse since he was elected," said Shelton. "Trump's Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia aggressively defended Cablevision's union-busting, including firing workers for union activity when they tried to win a contract with CWA. At OSHA, there are fewer inspectors than at any time in history and workplace fatalities are rising as a result." "Keep speaking up, and keep paying attention," said CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens who also addressed the conference. "As November nears, it will become more and more clear who supports working people of this country, and who does not." "Society is shifting. More and more, our communities are realizing that having a voice at work makes a difference in their daily lives. We must be the example. We will be the example," said CWA District 9 Vice President Frank Arce. District 4 Vice President Linda L. Hinton, District 6 Vice President Claude Cummings, NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss, NABET-CWA President Charlie Braico, Telecom & Technologies Vice President Lisa Bolton, Public Sector Vice President Margaret Cook, and members of the CWA executive board Dante Harris, Erika White, and Carolyn Wade all attended the conference. CWAers at the conference also protested in front of a Frontier office in Long Beach to call on new Frontier CEO Bernie Han to meet with President Shelton and make sure workers have a seat at the table as Frontier makes decisions about the company's future. CWAers at the District 9 conference protested in front of a Frontier office in Long Beach, Calif., to call on new Frontier CEO Bernie Han to meet with President Shelton. — Feb 20
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Organizing Update The Palm Beach Post and The Palm Beach Daily News Journalists at The Palm Beach Post and The Palm Beach Daily News announced Tuesday that they are forming a union with NewsGuild-CWA, adding to the surge of organizing among news industry employees. In a letter to management, they requested voluntary recognition of their newly formed unit of NewsGuild-CWA from the newspapers' parent company, Gannett. In a mission statement delivered Tuesday to the papers' interim publisher, newsroom representatives asked Gannett to recognize the Palm Beach News Guild to "preserve our role as a resource in our community, a voice for the voiceless and a watchdog that holds the powerful accountable." ### Wyoming Tribune Eagle Last week, the journalists of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle announced that they are joining NewsGuild-CWA. By forming a union, they hope to "protect our newspaper's legacy as an essential public trust," the union organizing committee said. The publication is owned by the Adams Publishing Group. "Cheyenne deserves a newspaper that can properly capture both its struggles and joys, yet the economic realities of journalism have, at times, limited our ability to produce stories that reflect those complexities," they wrote. "Despite those realities, we've continued to cover school board meetings, demand answers from public officials and highlight those unsung people and places that are so vital to our community." ### Political Research Associates Political Research Associates, a social justice think tank based in Somerville, Mass., won voluntary union recognition on Feb. 7. After a majority of employees signed union authorization cards, Executive Director Tarso Luís Ramos quickly agreed to recognize the staff as a unit of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, NewsGuild-CWA Local 32035. "We look forward to partnering with PRA management to create an engaged vision and to negotiating a fair collective bargaining agreement," staff members said in a statement. — Feb 20
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Bargaining Update AT&T Southwest Mobility This week, CWA members at AT&T Southwest Mobility voted to authorize a strike, with a vote supported by 98% of workers. Their contract with AT&T, covering more than 8,000 workers in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas, is set to expire on Friday. "AT&T Mobility workers in the Southwest are not afraid to do whatever it takes to make sure that the company invests in its employees so that we can build and support the next generation networks that our communities need," said Jason Vellmer, a CWA Staff Representative who is leading the bargaining team. "We have made progress toward a fair contract over the last few days, but several critical issues remain unresolved. This strike authorization vote lets AT&T know that the bargaining team has the full support of our members as we work toward a new contract that protects our healthcare, improves wages, and keeps family-supporting, union jobs in the region." — Feb 20