Mediation Off for AT&T, Union as 17,000-Person Strike Continues

Communications Workers of America (CWA) has pulled out of a meditation process with AT&T, saying the telecommunications company was using the federal mediator as a stall tactic.

A three-week standoff is stretching on between AT&T and the 17,000 employees CWA represents in the Southeast. The strike began Aug. 16 as the CWA filed a report in the National Labor Relations Board to accuse AT&T of unfair labor practices. Striking employees include technicians, customer service representatives and other workers in the carrier's wireline business. The CWA notes that these employees service both residential and business customers.

Inside AT&T-CWA Bargaining

AT&T invited the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to the bargaining table as a third party in August. Now CWA states AT&T was using the mediator to "stall negotiations."

"Our bargaining team was optimistic that AT&T’s suggestion that we enter mediation with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) meant that the company was finally ready to bargain in good faith. Unfortunately, that turned out not to be the case. Instead, the company was using the mediation process as another delaying tactic,” CWA District 3 vice president Richard Honeycutt said. “We appreciate the mediator’s efforts. Our message to AT&T is: No more excuses. It’s time to get serious about bargaining so we can get back to work serving our customers.”

Related:Telcos, Thieves Look to Cash In on Copper

AT&T in turn stated on Wednesday that the CWA had "fired" the mediator.

"This decision was unexpected, since withdrawing from mediation seems inconsistent with the union’s allegation of unfair labor practices," a statement from AT&T said. "We thank the mediator for their efforts throughout this process. Regardless of whether a neutral third party is present, progress will not be made without a willingness to compromise."

Connection to AT&T Outages?

CWA has blamed AT&T's use of "undertrained managers and contractors" to maintain its equipment for outages that have occurred during the strike.

AT&T said that an Aug. 22 internet outage in North Carolina stemmed from a contractor damaging a fiber line. And CWA pointed fingers at AT&T amid a South Carolina outage that happened the same week.

"I don't know if it was caused by equipment failure or what not, but our people are the ones out there that can fix this and get it up and going properly," CWA Local 3704 President Bill Johnson told ABC4 News last month. "But AT&T wants to play games at the bargaining table by not bargaining in good faith, so unfortunately, now it's starting to have effects on the customers."

Related:AT&T, Verizon Lead as U.S. Business Fiber Deployments Ramp Up

In the meantime, AT&T and other incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) are seeking to retire copper facilities in hopes of migrating their residential and business customers to fiber and fixed wireless access connections.