CWAers Fight Back With Powerful Pickets

AT&T Forged Fiber

On October 20, Fiber Technicians and Facility Specialists at Forged Fiber, AT&T’s newest wholesale fiber joint venture, launched informational pickets across eight states (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Utah, and Washington) to demand a fair contract.

At stake in negotiations is AT&T’s attempt to outsource critical infrastructure work to non-union contractors, despite directly employing over 1,100 highly-trained union technicians who transferred from Lumen Technologies when AT&T acquired its fiber business earlier this year. These pickets come just as AT&T is seeking regulatory approval to sell a 50% stake in Forged Fiber to BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

This is AT&T’s second wholesale fiber joint venture. The first, Gigapower, launched as a partnership with BlackRock in May 2023. CWA has repeatedly raised concerns about Gigapower’s contractor-based business model and released a report in July that found Gigapower’s first phase has been plagued with deployment delays, missed buildout targets, and costly litigation with former contractor partners.

“AT&T has achieved success as a union company, with experienced and highly skilled union labor,” said CWA District 7 Vice President Susie McAllister. “But instead of building on a successful union model, AT&T seems determined to replicate its race-to-the-bottom strategy that already failed at Gigapower. Our members at Forged Fiber are demanding that AT&T bargain in good faith and not put our communities and customers at risk by using substandard contracted services.”

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Seattle Times

In September, approximately 60 CWA members at the Seattle Times—represented by the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild (TNG-CWA Local 37082)—engaged in their first informational picket in over 20 years in response to months of delays at the bargaining table.

After more than six months of negotiating, members and management are no closer to agreement on wage increases. Members filed an unfair labor practice charge in June after Seattle Times management refused to bring a wage proposal to the table. When their offer finally came, it fell far short of expectations and the needs of members. Wage concerns are being driven by cost of living increases and prolonged inflation.

Another major concern is the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite members bringing these concerns to the table, management has refused to implement guardrails to protect workers and the readership from abuses of AI.

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Horizon Air

AFA-CWA Flight Attendants with Horizon Air, along with allies, were out in force last week, picketing for a living-wage contract at six airports across the western United States, including Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (pictured above). Horizon Air Flight Attendants play a critical role in Alaska-Hawaiian’s network, yet management is two and a half years past due on delivering a fair contract.

Click here to watch a recap of the Horizon Air pickets.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.