Hundreds of Kentucky AT&T union workers are nearing one month on strike

Hundreds of Kentucky AT&T workers are on strike amid stalled negotiations over their next contract.

The Communications Workers of America union, or CWA, alleges AT&T engaged in unfair labor practices during the negotiations, forcing them to strike.

The strike began August 16 and extends over nine states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The union says over 17,000 technicians, customer service representatives and others who install, maintain and support AT&T’s network are picketing the company’s corporate offices.

Some Kentucky union members say they believe the strike has led to longer waits to correct service disruptions and to connect new customers.

The CWA alleges the company has not been participating in good-faith negotiations, sending people to the table that do not have the authority to agree to contracts.

“AT&T workers across the country have made it clear that they are not willing to settle for a subpar contract or bad faith negotiations,” said CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. “I will be doing everything I can to ensure that AT&T puts proposals on the table with the wages and healthcare benefits that our members deserve.”

At the state’s largest CWA chapter in Louisville, several picket lines are going at once. At the busy intersection of Hikes Lane and Bardstown Road on Tuesday, about a dozen picketers carried signs walking back and forth in front of one of AT&T’s corporate offices. Some of the cars driving by honked in support of the picketers, to whoops from the union workers.

One worker said it felt like they’d been out there striking for months, not weeks. The strike will reach four weeks on Friday — many workers on the picket line said they hope to go back to work before then.

An AT&T spokesperson of Chief Operating Officer Jeff McElfresh said that discussions reopened on Sunday. In a statement last week, AT&T called the CWA’s decision to withdraw from negotiations “unexpected” and their allegations “inconsistent.”

A federal mediator was invited to assist with negotiations, but CWA dismissed the mediator over a week ago, saying they were purposefully slowing negotiations. The spokesperson said they will aim for a competitive agreement while maintaining the company’s “competitive position” compared to non-unionized competitors.

“We are hopeful that the CWA will engage with us in the same spirit and work towards an agreement to get our employees back to work,” the statement read.

Many of those on the picket lines in Louisville also participated in the 2019 CWA strike, but that one lasted less than a week.

Diogenes Miller, president of CWA Local 3310 in Louisville, is a network technician who works in constructing the company’s fiber networks. He said new service installations are delayed in the state and outages are likely taking longer to be resolved. AT&T experienced a widespread outage in late August — it is unclear if that was connected to the labor strike.

“If the company would just get somebody in the room and be able to bargain for the contract and have the authority to agree or disagree on certain aspects of the contract, then we'll most likely go back to work,” Miller said.

Out in Bowling Green, workers with CWA Local 3301 are also on strike. With only 28 members, president Shane Ellison said they are the smallest branch in the state. Although he is a first generation communications worker, he said he’s seen multiple generations of workers showing up to their picket line.

“I'm walking the picket line right now with guys and their dads and their grandpas,” Ellison said. “A guy that showed up last week, he’s retired. He was on strike in 1955 as a 5-year-old with his dad at the same work center, and then walked the strike line again in 1983 and then showed up here today in 2024.”

Ellison said that, to his knowledge, only one member in Kentucky has crossed the picket line.

“I don't think the company was thinking that that would happen. And I think the solidarity has actually caught them by surprise,” Ellison said. “We're striking because we want to get people to the table to bargain.”