Publisher’s Note: Here is the verbatim statement sent to ABD Sunday evening:
STATEMENT: The following can be attributed to Jeff McElfresh, AT&T Chief Operating Officer:
“We are pleased to announce that we’ve reached 2 tentative agreements with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The first is in District 9 in the West, which comes within days of getting back to the negotiating table to constructively reach a new deal. The second is in District 3 in the Southeast, bringing the work stoppage to an end on Sept. 16. As we’ve said since day 1, our goal has been to reach fair agreements that recognize the hard work our employees do to serve our customers with competitive market-based pay and benefits that are among the best in the nation – and that’s exactly what was accomplished. These agreements also support our competitive position in the broadband industry where we can grow and win against our mostly non-union competitors. We’ll provide more details about the tentative agreements once the CWA shares them with its members, and we expect the ratification votes to happen in the coming weeks.”