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Baton Rouge AT&T employees join striking workers across Southeast
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BATON ROUGE — AT&T workers took to the picket lines in Baton Rouge on Monday, joining more than 15,000 employees across the southeast United States to protest the company allegedly not bargaining in good faith during recent contract negotiations.
The strikers — including technicians, customer service representatives and wire installation workers — protested outside the AT&T Construction Yard on Harding Boulevard.
President of Communications Workers of America Local 3410 Stephen Edler said he is not sure how long the protests will go on, but it will end once AT&T comes to a reasonable agreement.
"AT&T is not bargaining with us in good faith. We just want to send a message to them to please come back to the table," he said.
The union said it filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.
“Our union entered into negotiations in a good faith effort to reach a fair contract, but we have been met at the table by company representatives who were unable to explain their own bargaining proposals and did not seem to have the actual bargaining authority required by the legal obligation to bargain in good faith,” Richard Honeycutt, vice president of the CWA District 3 in the Southeast, said in a statement.
CWA's District 3 represents workers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The labor union also accused AT&T of sending undertrained managers and contractors to perform highly technical work during the strike.
AT&T said it has “various business continuity measures in place to avoid disruptions to operations and will continue to provide our customers with the great service they expect.”
AT&T said the union's accusations are not accurate.
“CWA’s claims of unfair labor practices are not grounded in fact. We have been engaged in substantive bargaining since Day One and are eager to reach an agreement that benefits our hard-working employees,” the company said in a statement.
AT&T also said it reached three separate agreements this year covering more than 13,000 employees. They will also go on to say they have a variety of measures in place to avoid disruptions to operations and will continue to provide customers with the service they expect.
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