AT&T presents final offer to end strike, those on picket lines worry about financial strain
MIAMI - AT&T presented a final offer to Communication Workers of America members to end the 22-day-old strike.
Morris is an AT&T customer on Sunny Isles Beach. The local CWA president says about 1,400 AT&T technicians are on strike, almost all in South Florida.
"If all the technicians are on strike, what should I do? I don't know," Morris said.
AT&T has said they have continuity measures in place to avoid disruptions in service during the strike. CBS News Miami asked AT&T for specifics, but didn't get any.
"Not good enough. Not good enough. What is it? Who should we call? What should we do?" Morris said.
We're in week three of the holdout between 17,000 AT&T employees across the southeast as they negotiate a new contract. AT&T released what they're calling a final offer.
"We've made a strong final offer to our CWA members in the southeast," said AT&T SVP of Engineering and Operations Corey Anthony.
AT&T did not respond to our questions but sent out this pre-recorded video about the offer.
"We ask members in the southeast to carefully consider this offer," Anthony said.
Local CWA members tell CBS News Miami this is the first offer they've gotten with specifics. Their president said in a statement that this doesn't meet his members' expectations:
The more back and forth, the more time without a paycheck on the picket lines for technician Marcial Zacarias.
"I've had to call my car loans, have them push my car loans back. So I'm going to be behind two months on my car payments because who knows how long this is going to go," Zacarias said.
Zacarias says that all parties suffer from this, including customers who pay for the service.
"I do feel bad for them, and hopefully, AT&T realizes that it's not just affecting your employees but also your customers," Zacarias said.
The union does want to make a counteroffer.
South Florida's CWA members say their last strike in 2019 lasted 6 days. This strike is reaching day 22.