The longest-ever strike of North Carolina telecommunications workers ended on September 15 with victory for the Communications Workers of America (CWA). After a 30-day strike, AT&T agreed to a tentative agreement (TA) with 19 percent raises as well as improvements to work-life balance and the two-tier system. CWA District 3, which represents 17,000 workers in nine Southeastern states, will vote on the TA in the coming weeks [1].
Grant Welch is the CWA’s North Carolina legislative and political director. He was hired in 1999 as a technician for Bellsouth, which was absorbed by AT&T in 2006. Though Welch has worked for two companies over a 25-year career, he’s only belonged to one union.
“CWA is membership-led,” said Welch, “Leading up to negotiations we take a vote, and we ask the members, ‘If it comes to it, are you willing to go on strike?’ The vote this time around was 96 or 97 percent yes.”
AT&T workers across the Southeast began an unfair labor practices (ULP) strike on August 16. According to the union, the corporation refused to bargain over mandatory subjects in contract negotiations and would not send negotiators with decision-making authority. A ULP strike has benefits and drawbacks from the CWA’s perspective.
“When we’re on an ULP strike, that protects our jobs,” said Welch, “The company can bring in temporary contractors, but they can’t make them permanent.”
The main drawback was that workers couldn’t receive strike pay for 15 days due to the ULP designation. CWA was able to tap into its relief fund on August 30.
“Even then, that’s only $300 per week for each worker,” said Welch, “At day 29, it increases to $400 a week. We actually stood out long enough to get that increase, but the next day we won. We had a TA.”
CWA Local 3611 represents ten AT&T offices across the Triangle. During the strike, picket lines went up at these locations from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Picket lines are instantly respected in communities with an organized working class but aren't a familiar concept to most Southerners. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 2.7 percent of North Carolina workers belonged to a trade union 2023.
“Across District 3, only five percent of our workers crossed that picket line. Ninety-five percent of us held the line. In the South, in nine ‘right-to-work’ states, that is phenomenal.”
Workers who side with corporations during strikes are often called “scabs” by their colleagues, who criticize them for benefitting from union contracts but not helping to win them. When the CWA cleared its members to return to work after September 15, it cautioned them not to retaliate against workers who sided with management.
“We need to leave those scabs on an island alone by themselves,” said Welch, “There should be zero discussion with them. They took bread off your table while you were fighting to win a better lifestyle for everyone.”
Important strides toward a better lifestyle are laid out in the five-year contract offered by AT&T. The language of the agreement, rather dry to an outsider, will be examined closely by workers as they decide whether to vote for ratification. A few of the TA's gains are outlined below:
AT&T hired contractors as temporary workers during the strike. Most employees at the company make between $25 to $35 an hour. The strikebreakers were offered an hourly rate of $200.
“Many of them were brought in under false pretenses,” said Welch, “Some of the contractors didn’t know it was strike work and left when they found out. They said, ‘Man, I'm not crossing the picket line. I was told it was storm relief’. Of course, there were some that just didn't care, who just wanted the money.”
AT&T also used managers, some of whom hadn’t done fieldwork in years, to compensate for its striking workforce. The corporation’s use of brand-new contractors and undertrained managers had predictable results.
“They messed up so many jobs,” said Welch, “Since the strike ended, we’re going back and fixing so many of their mistakes. But that's the thing, they just wanted the money. They didn't care about the quality of work.”
While AT&T floundered, its workforce was rediscovering a spirit of unity on the picket line. Since the 2000s, the company has split up the rank-and-file by creating “lower tier” roles such as Wire Technicians. The two-tier system had led to workers with similar jobs getting very different pay and conditions, a situation designed to sow division. CWA hoped to abolish tiers in the new contract but only achieved a partial victory. The TA consolidates three different wage scales for Wire Technicians into one [2] [3].
“Nobody wants to strike, but one of the silver linings is the camaraderie,” said Welch, “When you're on that picket line and when everyone is out of work, there is no job title. There is no disparity in wages, benefits, and job treatment. Everyone is the same and we are all fighting for equality, equity, and respect in the workplace.”
The union’s call for equity and respect did not interest many North Carolina politicians. According to the CWA, only twenty-one state officeholders visited the picket line or made a public statement of support. This figure included only one Republican, a performance that speaks for itself.
Democratic support for the CWA, though superior to what the GOP offered, was not impressive. Only twenty liberal officeholders backed the workers. Eleven were state representatives, amounting to 23 percent of the NC House Democratic Caucus. Ten percent of the party’s state senators backed the union. Weak support by Democrats was especially revealing since the strike happened in a swing state during a presidential campaign.
According to polling averages, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are tied in North Carolina. The state is home to thousands of CWA members, who in turn have tens of thousands of friends and family. A visit to the picket line could have electrified this significant bloc of voters. Harris, Walz, Trump, and Vance all visited North Carolina between August 16 and September 15. None of them stopped by a picket line.
The NC AFL-CIO held its annual convention a few days after the AT&T workers won their strike. Governor Roy Cooper spoke before the union federation, which CWA belongs to. Cooper warmly congratulated the union on its 30-day strike, which he hadn’t supported when it was ongoing.
Josh Stein, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, offered half-hearted support for the CWA. During the strike, he agreed to meet with a few workers in a closed-door, no-press meeting. Stein asked what the union wanted in a new contract, enquired about the issues on the job, and agreed to a group photo in front of a CWA Local 3611 banner. Workers at the meeting said they offered Stein a picket sign to hold in the photo. He declined.
The CWA offered warm thanks to the three Congresspeople, all Democrats, who publicly sided with the union. Welch said, “We will say Wiley Nickel, Deborah Ross, and Don Davis took action in support of workers. Those are the three who I will say are true champions of labor.”
Work Cited
“AT&T Southeast Strike Ends.” Communications Workers of America, 15 Sept. 2024, cwa-union.org/news/releases/att-southeast-strike-ends.
DiMaggio, Dan. “AT&T Southeast Workers End Month-Long Strike.” Labor Notes, 30 Sept. 2024, www.labornotes.org/blogs/2024/09/att-southeast-workers-end-month-long-strike.
DiMaggio, Dan. “AT&T Southeast Strike Nears One Month, With California and Nevada On.” Labor Notes, 19 Sept. 2024, www.labornotes.org/2024/09/att-southeast-strike-nears-one-month-california-and-nevada-brink-walkout.
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