AT&T workers air grievances over tech job outsourcing
In Cleveland on Monday, workers from Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan held a protest against their employer, communications giant AT&T. The protest was over the company’s policy of closing service centers in the United States and moving Internet technology jobs to low-wage countries in Asia. The workers marched to the Cleveland Convention Center where AT&T CEO John Donovan was attending a conference on new blockchain technology. The new blockchain technology aims to stop the hacking of corporate servers. Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Gary Kundrat said that in 2017 100 members of the CWA in Cleveland lost jobs after the firm’s call center in Brecksville closed. Last summer, over 600 workers were made redundant after call centers in Harrisburg, PA and Denver, CO shut down. Kundrat said the jobs went to contractors in India and the Philippines. Workers in these countries are paid US$2-3 per hour, a tenth of union wages in the US.
