Valley AT&T workers join 17,000 colleagues on strike in California, Nevada

About 750 union workers on AT&T landline operations in Fresno, Madera, Kings and Tulare counties went on strike Wednesday to protest working without a contract for nearly a year.

The workers are members of Local 9408 of the Communications Workers of America, and are among about 17,000 AT&T landline technicians and call center workers represented by CWA across California and Nevada who joined the work stoppage.

Roy Granados, Local 9408 president, said one of the main issues of the strike is changes made by AT&T to workers’ job requirements without union agreement. The strike includes work on installation, repairs and new construction of landline phone services “until the union and AT&T can resolve issues concerning working conditions and contract bargaining,” according to a statement from the local.

“We are prepared to continue serving customers,” AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said. “We are a customer service company and we plan for all contingencies ... weather, natural disasters, work stoppages or any other factors.”

Richter said AT&T has a strong record of reaching fair deals with its employees. AT&T said it has hired 20,000 people into union-represented jobs in 2016 and has openings to fill more than 4,200 other union jobs.

“We’re a union-friendly company, with more full-time, union-represented employees than any company in America,” Richter said. “We’re the only major wireless company with a unionized workforce.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2017 at 1:01 PM with the headline "Valley AT&T workers join 17,000 colleagues on strike in California, Nevada."