Members of the Communications Workers of America are striking outside AT&T facilities in Bowling Green, Owensboro and other Kentucky cities as the union and the telecommunications giant negotiate a new contract.
Workers are striking, claiming AT&T is not negotiating in good faith. Shane Ellison is president of Local 3301, which represents the company’s 27 workers in Bowling Green. On the picket line Wednesday, Ellison said the union believes AT&T has not sent representatives to the bargaining table with the authority to make decisions.
“When we put proposals on the table, they want to turn them around and give them back to the company, and when they put proposals in and we have questions about those proposals, they don’t have the answers,” Ellison told WKU Public Radio. “They should have someone at the table who can negotiate without having to call headquarters.”
The CWA union said it had filed a complaint of unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board. AT&T denied the union’s allegations.
“CWA’s allegations of unfair labor practices are not based on facts. We have been engaged in substantive negotiations since day one and are committed to reaching an agreement that benefits our hard-working employees,” the company said in a statement.
More than 17,000 workers in nine southeastern states have been trying to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement since June and walked off the job Friday. AT&T announced Wednesday that it is entering federal mediation.
Ellison, who works as a fiber optic splicer in Bowling Green, hopes his office can resume operations soon.
“We provide essential services. We have a technician here who looks after all the emergency call centers in Western Kentucky. He maintains their equipment and I maintain the fiber optic cables between the offices and the emergency call centers. We have a lot of work during storms,” Ellison explained. “A lot of people don’t understand that our work doesn’t end at five o’clock.”
The strike involves technicians, customer service representatives and others who support AT&T’s residential and business telecommunications network.
