17,000 AT&T Employees Are Striking In California And Nevada

The Communications Workers of America, a union that represents AT&T workers, has gone on strike this week.

The union, which represents around 17,000 employees in California and Nevada, went on strike on Wednesday morning over a change in some of their job duties.

The employees install cable and phone service and work in call centers where customers call with questions or problems.

The union plans to file an unfair labor charge with the National Labor Relations Board.

Sheila Bordeaux, who works in an AT&T call center and is an executive board member of the union local that covers Los Angeles and surrounding areas, is asking technicians who install cable to also work outside maintaining phone and cable wires, which is a higher-paid job.

Until the issue is resolved, workers will remain on strike according to Bordeaux.

According to AT&T spokesman Marty Richter, AT&T is in talks with the union to get employees back to work. They are negotiating a new contract for the workers, whose contract expired almost a year ago.

Hopefully a resolution can be found quickly. In 2016 almost 40,000 Verizon workers were on strike for seven whole weeks.

Disclaimer: We have no position in AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and have not been compensated for this article.