ATLANTA — Labor contracts for thousands of AT&T workers expired Saturday night.
Negotiators and AT&T representatives are currently bargaining to reach an agreement on compensation and benefits.
The union is threatened to strike if no deal was made by Saturday night. A walkout would impact AT&T customers.
Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach reports members of the union will continue to work as contract negotiations continue.
"They're proposing increases in our healthcare, decreases in the number of sick days we get," Ed Barlow with Communication Workers of America, Local 3204 said.
Barlow was representing about 2,000 AT&T workers in metro Atlanta.
"We simply as employees of this company want our share," Barlow said.
Union workers prepared signs Friday. The disagreement centers on compensation, overtime, and benefits for current and retired AT&T workers.
The negotiations affect about 25,000 workers in Georgia and 8 other southeastern states.
A spokesperson for AT&T said the company is not proposing to reduce workers' pay.
One AT&T worker said his take-home pay is shrinking because the company is charging more for healthcare.
"Do the math. If our raise goes up two percent but healthcare go up five percent I just lost three percent,” Steven Andrews said.
Barlow says strikes will likely impact customers who have AT&T phone, television and internet service.
Long wait times for calls to service centers and delays in technical support and in-home service are possible.
“That sounds real good on camera but when service goes down there's no way you can train a manager to do what our members have done for years,” Barlow said.
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