AT&T and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have reached a tentative first contract covering 500 DirecTV technical service center employees.
If the CWA workers agree to the new contract, these 500 technical support workers in Alabama, California, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota and Tennessee will join 1,500 CWA-represented colleagues already covered by the AT&T National Internet Contract.
Brenda Roberts, VP of CWA District 7, said in a release that the “members’ mobilization and solidarity from thousands of other DIRECTV workers who also have a CWA voice and representation made a big difference in the negotiations.”
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AT&T has continued to make progress with DirecTV workers represented by the CWA. In December, AT&T completed an agreement on a new contract covering 2,000 DirecTV call center workers, for example.
Separately, AT&T and the CWA reached a tentative three-year agreement covering 2,200 workers covered by the telco’s National Internet Contract.
To date, AT&T said it has reached, and union-represented employees ratified, 15 different labor agreements in 2016, collectively covering nearly 61,000 employees. This includes nine agreements covering nearly 7,300 former DirecTV employees.
However compelling its progress with DirecTV has been, AT&T is hardly out of the negotiation woods.
CWA-represented wireline workers in California and Nevada are putting more pressure on the company to reignite negotiations. Nearly 17,000 wireline employees in California and Nevada have been working without a new contract since April.
Meanwhile, a separate contract covering another 21,000 wireless workers will expire in February.