UPDATE: AT&T reached out with a correction of some of the information related to the average pay and benefits of the bargaining unit’s employees presented in the original article. As per a company official:
The employees in that bargaining unit currently average nearly $70,000 a year in pay and benefits, with some averaging over $115,000. That’s before taking into consideration our offer, which includes a lump sum payment, retroactive pay increases back to contract expiration in February, annual wage increases with more base pay and less at-risk for retail employees, job security provisions that are unheard of in the wireless industry, and comprehensive healthcare and retirement benefits. Compounded wage increase over the four-year term of the offer will be nearly 10%, and employees in wage progression may see an even greater total increase over the term of the offer.
The original story is as follows.
AT&T has proposed another deal to its approximately 20,000 workers based in several federal states in the U.S. as part of a long-standing negotiation with employees in a bid to settle the discord between the two parties. According to new reports, the offer is supposed to encompass about 7 percent of AT&T’s employees, with the mobile network carrier indicating that the proposal is the ultimate offer it is presenting to those workers.
Under the proposed deal, the Dallas, Texas-based telecommunications company would offer $70,000 in average pay and benefits to employees from across 36 states, though some higher positions could earn employees at least $115,000, including retroactive salary increases as far back as February of this year. Although the carrier stated that this offer is final as it is the only open contract on the table currently, AT&T remains open to further discussions with union representatives, which could mean the current offer might change once another talk between the company and its employees takes place. It remains unclear, though, how the workers’ union responds to the proposed deal or whether they are willing to renegotiate with AT&T regarding the settlement of the rift between them. The discord was triggered by AT&T’s practices of outsourcing its call center jobs to other countries where third-party companies are handling calls, leaving Americans in the United States jobless even as the company generates almost $1 billion in profits every month, according to the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
In May of this year, AT&T workers across all divisions nationwide, some 37,000 of them, held a three-day strike after negotiations failed between the two entities regarding several issues that include offshoring and benefits. The strike includes employees from the company’s wireless and wireline operations, as well as DIRECTV workers with the full support of CWA, which discussed terms of settlement with the AT&T management in behalf of the employees, though the talks resulted in clashing opinions, thus the strike. The strike led to the closures of hundreds of AT&T stores in major markets such as New York City and Los Angeles, among others, and it remains to be seen how the new deal could help settle the ongoing strife.