ATLANTA – AT&T reached tentative agreements with AT&T Southeast and AT&T West for new union contracts, marking a significant milestone after an ongoing strike by the provider’s workers, technicians and customer service representatives.
Communications Workers of America (CWA) negotiated new contracts in the Southeast covering 17,000 workers who install, maintain and support AT&T’s residential and business wireline telecommunications network in North Carolina and eight other states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The five-year agreement includes across-the-board wage increases of 19.33% with an additional 3% increase for wire technicians and utility operations, addressing the core issues of low wages and health care costs. The agreement holds health care premiums steady in the first year and lowers them in the second and third years, with modest monthly increases in the final two years. The agreement in the Southeast ends the 30-day strike — the longest telecommunications strike in the region’s history…