The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union said it’s reached a tentative contract with AT&T that raises base wages and includes adjustments for inflation.
The proposed new four-year agreement covers about 13,000 workers. That includes technicians, call center customer support workers and representatives at AT&T's retail stores in 36 states in the Northeast, Midwest and West and the District of Columbia.
“These workers provided essential services during the pandemic, putting themselves at risk to enable us to stay connected to one another,” said CWA President Chris Shelton in a statement. “They stayed united during contract negotiations and won an agreement that recognizes the importance of the work they do and shows what working people can achieve when they join together and demand respect.”
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The agreement raises base wages by nearly 15% over the course of the contract, with additional adjustments made based on the Consumer Price Index to account for rising inflation, CWA said.
The base pay depends on a lot of factors, such as job title and seniority, said CWA spokesperson Beth Allen. An AT&T representative previously told Fierce that full-time AT&T Mobility customer service employees earn an average of $26 an hour in total pay.
In a press release, CWA noted that during negotiations in 2017, workers won guaranteed customer service work at U.S. call centers and job security protections that require AT&T to find them a new job if their call center or retail store closes.
This new contract builds on those gains; it also includes a provision that says AT&T needs to maintain at least 20% company-owned stores, according to Allen. That seems notable given that AT&T was closing a lot of corporate-owned stores in favor of using dealers or authorized retailers to sell phones.
Other provisions include adding Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a recognized holiday, new health care options and the addition of two weeks of paid parental leave. There are also new limits on the use of web cameras – an important privacy protection for call center representatives who are working from home, CWA said.
AT&T has said it’s the only national wireless carrier with a fully unionized non-management workforce. CWA points out that efforts are underway to unionize elsewhere. For example, Verizon Wireless workers recently celebrated a vote in Everett, Washington, and efforts are underway at Apple stores.
Negotiations for the new contract have been underway for about six months. Workers will be getting voting instructions soon and CWA expects to know the results by Friday, July 29.