New Haven Independent

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal raised, and answered, that question Thursday afternoon at a press conference with union workers outside AT&T headquarters at 310 Orange St.

Inside that building, AT&T officials have been locked in contract negotiations since Feb. 24 with the Communications Workers of America Local 1298. The talks, which affect 4,300 AT&T employees statewide, have continued well past the last contract’s expiration on April 4. Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Board in Hartford has issued two complaints against the company for failure to bargain in good faith: Click here for a past story.

Thursday, union leaders delivered a petition with 3,500 names on it declaring “corporate greed” and calling on the company to settle on a fair labor agreement.

“It’s all about jobs. It’s all about keeping jobs in Connecticut,” said union president Bill Henderson. Over the last four years, AT&T has shipped out 1,000 Connecticut union jobs out of state, to places like Ohio and Michigan, he said.

Blumenthal showed up to the rainy sidewalk, where a couple dozen workers gathered, clad in red and holding umbrellas. He joined their rallying cry.

“This issue is about service and jobs,” said Blumenthal.

“You can’t have good service if you don’t have people providing that service,” said the attorney general, “and I mean skilled people here in Connecticut who know where Orange Street is!”

Blumenthal (pictured with Henderson) argued that customer service jobs should be filled by people who know the local territory, not by people miles away.

His remarks hit to the heart of the negotiating dispute.

The company, which employs about 300,000 workers nationwide, is reacting to a major shift in the industry from land line to wireless services. First-quarter earnings for this year showed that profit for AT&T’s wireless group rose 13 percent, while profit for the Wireline, or landline, groups, plummeted 27 percent, according to AT&T spokesman Walt Sharp.

As a result, the company has made organizational changes, including slashing jobs in some areas and centralizing services in the Midwest. AT&T has argued that the job shifts are cost-saving business decisions forced by a changing landscape.

AT&T’s Sharp rejected Blumenthal’s argument that a customer service rep needs to be in Connecticut to help Connecticut customers over the phone.

“We can provide service from any number of locations,” he said, “and we provide it from the places that we can do it best.”

Blumenthal tied the labor dispute to a separate battle he’s having with AT&T. In a pending case before the state Department of Public Utility, Blumenthal has charged the company with failing to uphold its legal obligation to provide adequate service and repairs to its telephone lines in Connecticut. AT&T agreed to that level of service when the state allowed it to become a monopoly, he said. Click here to read his April 3 brief on the subject.

If AT&T ships more jobs out of state, it will do an even poorer job at meeting state service requirements, Blumenthal argued.

Sharp declined to comment on that dispute.

As evidence of AT&T’s commitment to its workers, Sharp pointed to an offer made in the Southwest, at one of five bargaining tables across the country. The five contracts under negotiation affect about 80,500 employees in the wireline, or land line, part of AT&T.

AT&T has capped its bargaining in the Southwest with a “last, best and final offer,” said Sharp. The offer includes a 6.6 percent pay increase over 3 years — a rarity in a recession, he argued. The offer also continues a guarantee to keep jobs in that five-state area.

Sharp wouldn’t comment on what offers have been put on the table in Connecticut, but he indicated similar terms were being discussed.

“This is the sort of offer with the kind of content that we’re discussing everywhere,” he said. “This is a good offer.”

Local 1298’s Henderson said negotiations in New Haven have progressed little since they began nearly three months ago. To put pressure on the company, the union is planning a “Rally for a Good Contract” from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday on the New Haven Green.