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Harlan County is no stranger to the sights of workers on a picket line, having seen its share of labor disputes over the years. On Tuesday, Aug. 20, members of the CWA (Communication Workers of America), the union representing employees of AT&T, were gathered at the intersection of US 119 and KY 421 as part of a labor dispute which resulted in a strike.
According to a press release located on the CWA website at https://cwa-union.org, 17,000 communications workers are on strike, citing unfair labor practices due to AT&T’s failure to bargain in good faith.
Frank McMillian, president of CWA Local 3372, talked about the situation.
“It (the strike) is based on not coming to the bargaining table and bargaining in good faith,” McMillian said.
He pointed out bargaining consists of sitting down and negotiating different aspects of a contract.
“The union feels it’s not being done fairly and properly,” McMillian said. “The normal way to do that is to sit down and work things out. Everybody’s not going to agree with everything, but it’s done fairly, and you work it out. It’s not being done that way.”
McMillian said the company is not negotiating with the workers and explained the CWA’s function.
“What we do is we go in, we try to get better wages, better healthcare, and better benefits,” McMillian said. “We represent the employees.”
AT&T released a statement on the situation which can be found at https://about.att.com/pages/bargaining.
“CWA’s claims of unfair labor practices are not grounded in fact,” reads AT&T’s statement. “We have been engaged in substantive bargaining since day one and are eager to reach an agreement that benefits our hard-working employees. As evidence, we have reached 3 agreements this year covering more than 13,000 employees, including our most recent tentative agreement with District 9. We remain committed to working with District 3 in the same manner.” 
“We’re disappointed that union leaders would call for a strike at this point in the negotiations, rather than directing their energies toward constructive discussions at the bargaining table. This action needlessly jeopardizes the wages and well-being of our employees. We have various business continuity measures in place to avoid disruptions to operations and will continue to provide our customers with the great service they expect.”
The CWA members went on strike at 3 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 16.
McMillian mentioned the CWA members do not intend to cause customers any issues.
“We care about the customers,” McMillian said. “We’re not trying to make anything hard on the customer. We really didn’t want to go out on strike, but there’s no other choice. We want to be treated fairly and equally.”
McMillian mentioned the CWA members wish to return to work.
“We want to go back to work,” McMillian said. “Everybody wants to go back to work, they have families, they have kids to take care of, some have senior parents to take care of. There’s just a lot involved in this…we’re just hoping things work out.”
McMillian hopes the community understands the workers’ reasons for going on strike.
“One thing I want the community to know is that we’re not out there just because we want to be off work,” McMillian said. “We’re out there because we have families, kids, and obligations. We want to work. We just want to be treated equally. That’s all we’re asking for.”