AT&T Southwest Mobility

At the opening of bargaining this week for more than 8,000 AT&T Southwest Mobility employees in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas, the CWA bargaining team urged AT&T to negotiate a contract that includes wage and benefit improvements and a commitment to keeping good, family-supporting jobs in the region. Workers set up informational picket lines at retail stores and call center locations across the region in support of the bargaining.

Despite record-breaking profits, the company has cut more than 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.

"The employees of Mobility handle every technology offered to consumers and play a critical role in AT&T's core business. It's time for the company to stop focusing so much on pumping up its stock price and focus on investing in its employees and the next generation networks that our communities need," said Jason Vellmer, a CWA Staff Representative who is leading the bargaining team.

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.

The current contract expires on February 21, 2020.

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T-Mobile

As bargaining opened yesterday for T-Mobile retail workers in Pinole, Calif., members of CWA and other labor unions gathered outside of the bargaining location to show their support. Addressing the rally, CWA District 9 Vice President Frank Arce said, "This T-Mobile store in tiny Pinole has set the example for not just T-Mobile, but for the wireless industry to take the next step."

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Hawaiian Airlines

Hawaiian Airlines Flight Attendants, members of AFA-CWA, along with labor allies, took the fight for a fair contract to the quarterly Hawaiian Airlines Board of Directors meeting this week. Flight Attendants also demonstrated at six different airports to tell the public about their working conditions and demands for better wages.

"We are now trying to get more members of the larger working community to share our message," Jaci-Ann Chung said. "We live in these communities and it's important to let Hawai'i residents know what is going on."

CWAers are fighting to make billionaires pay their fair share! On Tuesday, members of CWA Local 1118 joined State Senator Jen Metzger, Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, and other allies for the announcement of a bill that would tax corporate stock buybacks in New York, raising more than $3 billion annually.

Later the same day, members of CWA Locals 1101 and 1180 rallied on Wall Street to #MakeBillionairesPay. Two AT&T Mobility workers from CWA Local 1101 talked about the devastating effects of job cuts at AT&T, which plans to spend $30 billion buying back its own stock to boost stock prices. AT&T has cut more than 37,000 jobs since the Republican corporate tax cut bill went into effect two years ago.

Although Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress, and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson pledged that the tax bill would lead to more jobs, higher wages, and greater investment, those benefits have not materialized. Instead, corporations have used their tax windfall to finance stock buybacks which benefit wealthy investors and corporate executives.

Members of CWA Locals 1101 and 1180 rallied on Wall Street to #MakeBillionairesPay.

Georgia has slashed funding for higher education and offloaded responsibility to students and employees, and members of the United Campus Workers of Georgia-CWA are fighting back! UCWGA-CWA members held a rally Wednesday at the Georgia Capitol to push for lawmakers to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour for University System of Georgia employees and to waive the exorbitant fees that graduate students pay for various campus services while working as teaching assistants.

Read more about the action here.

UCWGA-CWA members held a rally Wednesday at the Georgia Capitol to push for a $15 minimum wage and to waive exorbitant campus services fees.