It’s been more than two weeks since 17,000 AT&T workers across the Southeast began their strike against the company.

According to officials from the union that represents these workers, Communication Workers of America (CWA), not much has changed and an end to the strike doesn’t appear to be yet in sight.

CWA claims workers face unfair labor practices and unfair contract negotiations within the company which it hopes to change with a new bargaining agreement. The prior agreement, agreed on in 2019, officially expired after five years.

Mustafa Hassan serves as the president of CWA Chapter 3905 in Huntsville, representing over 300 local workers who remain on strike.

In an interview with HBJ, Hassan stated that CWA members will remain “dug in” until AT&T starts taking the bargaining process seriously.

“Unfortunately, we’re still at a point where the company refuses to bargain in good faith,” Hassan claimed. “They still refuse to bring an actual decision-maker to the table to negotiate on any mandated items. It’s not possible to bargain in good faith when the person you’re talking to can’t make any decisions on the proposals we continue to bring to the table.”

The CWA is seeking partial wage increases, cost-of-living adjustments, and improved job security assurances.

“AT&T, a multibillion-dollar corporation, often brags about the profits they make in the media and to their shareholders, so we feel what we’re asking for is reasonable,” Hassan said.

A federal mediator became involved as of this week at the request of AT&T. According to daily reports posted on CWA’s District 3 website,“Negotiations continue over their substandard wage and benefits proposals.”

Other details in the most recent report provided a package from AT&T that would “require our core employees to take a drastic cut in paid illness days, make changes to Article 14 that would allow employees from other CWA Districts to be loaned to D3 indefinitely and admittedly made ‘incremental changes’ for Wire Technicians. One of those incremental changes proposed increasing meal reimbursements from $37 to $40.”

AT&T released a statement denying claims of unfair labor practices, pointing to the successful contract negotiations with other national regions reached earlier this year.

“We have been engaged in substantive bargaining since day 1 and are eager to reach an agreement that benefits our hard-working employees,” said AT&T spokesman Jim Greer. “We have reached 3 agreements this year covering more than 13,000 employees, including our most recent tentative agreement with District 9 (west). We remain committed to working with District 3 (southeast) in the same manner.”

Hassan informed HBJ that CWA West has postponed the vote required to finalize the tentative agreement referred to in the statement, which was originally scheduled for Friday August 30th.