AT&T workers to picket across Central Florida Monday

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Union representatives for AT&T workers said there are plans to picket at sites across Central Florida on Monday, the first business day after their 15,000 workers went on strike.

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As of 3 p.m. Friday, workers were instructed to turn over their equipment, keys and trucks and stop responding to customer calls.

The Communications Workers of America called for a strike one month after contract negotiations with the company began. A representative said the primary issue for the workers was the two-tier contract system employees are under, where new employees are treated differently than veterans.

He also accused AT&T of sending retired employees to the bargaining table – who weren’t supposed to be part of the negotiations.

“We filed an injunction for unfair labor practices, and we are now on strike until this gets resolved, or until AT&T decides to come to the table with actual delegates and actually have a conversation about our contract,” Tom Anderson said.

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Anderson was leading a small demonstration on the side of Goldenrod Road in east Orange County Saturday, which he admitted was hastily thrown together because that location operates on the weekends.

He said customers could expect slower responses from the company as managers hop into trucks and respond to calls until the end of the strike.

“There’ll be people waiting for installations and these kinds of things that are not going to get what they want,” Anderson explained. “There’ll be people that experience outages and these sorts of things that happen [with] the natural flow of events.”

AT&T released a statement on the strike Friday that called the accusations of the company unfounded.

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“We have been engaged in substantive bargaining since day 1 and are eager to reach an agreement that benefits our hard-working employees,” a company representative wrote. “We’re disappointed that union leaders would call for a strike at this point in the negotiations… We have various business continuity measures in place to avoid disruptions to operations and will continue to provide our customers with the great service they expect.”

Anderson said he hoped for a quick resolution from the company – but said workers would picket as long as necessary.

“We do try to do the very best that we can, and when we’re when we’re doing our job, we’re very difficult to compete with,” he said.

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