AT&T Southwest Tentative Agreement Voting Information

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Information each member will receive by mail:

1. A cover letter from the bargaining committee and a flyer about the contract explanation call on Feb. 12 at 7 pm. 
2. A ballot, voting instructions, and the final bargaining report mailed by the American Arbitration Association (AAA)

If you don’t receive mailing #2 before the Feb. 12 call, you can refer to the final bargaining report online during the call

How the voting will work:

The ratification vote is being conducted by the American Arbitration Association (AAA). The AAA is a neutral third party we use for arbitration proceedings and that some CWA locals use for their officer elections.

Locals have been asked to send address changes and additions for new members to the AAA. If you have not received the mailing with your ballot by the end of the day on Wednesday, Feb. 13, contact Scott Boswell of the AAA at 972-774-6934 between Feb. 14 and Feb. 21. Please request a duplicate ballot as soon as possible to ensure your ballot will arrive in time to be counted.

Only the member whose ballot needs to be replaced will be eligible to make any duplicate ballot request. The identity of the requesting member must be verified and no requests can be made on someone else’s behalf.

Why is there a second tentative agreement?

We originally made the decision to go into early bargaining with the belief that we could get a better contract for members than by waiting until regular bargaining. The Bargaining Committee reached a tentative agreement in December. That T.A. was not ratified when members voted in January.

However, the vote was very close: 3,826 No, 3,425 Yes -- a difference of 401 votes. With such a close vote and so much at stake, we made the decision to go back to the table, again with the belief that our members would be better served than by waiting for regular bargaining.

Is the second T.A. different from the first?

The Bargaining Committee was able to make only one change* in the second round of early bargaining. Despite the Committee’s work, the Company simply would not put any more money into this contract. The Company made clear that it was already feeling the heat for having negotiated an agreement that costs more than any of the other AT&T agreements.

The only other option open to the Bargaining Committee was to move money around. In the end, the Committee decided not to affect the areas of improvement it was able to win in the first round of early bargaining.

*The Leveraged Service Rep committee will have two additional members and two additional sessions each year.

Why are we voting again?

As noted, the vote was very close. In addition, only 44% of members (7,251 out of 16,359) voted and we received many reports of members who never received the final bargaining report so they didn’t know what they were voting on, and many who never received a ballot at all. Every CWA member at AT&T Southwest deserves a say in their future.

Why is AAA conducting the election?

There are 3 reasons we decided to use a neutral third party to conduct the election:

1. The Bargaining Committee did not think that locals that had already done a mailing to their members should have to incur the cost again. This mailing is being done at the District’s expense.
2. As noted, many members did not receive ballots. The AAA has procedures in place to ensure that every member is able to get a ballot.
3. Some apparently did not believe that the District reported accurate voting results. Documentation of the vote count is being made available to every local president to show that the results were accurate, but we felt it would be better to make the results completely transparent. Locals will be able to send observers to the vote count.

AAA is a trusted organization that CWA Districts and the National have used for decades for arbitration proceedings and that some CWA locals use for their officer elections.

What happens if the second T.A. is voted down?

If this tentative agreement is voted down, we will enter into regular bargaining in March. The slate will be wiped clean and we will begin bargaining from scratch. The Bargaining Committee will be made up of the same elected members who will again negotiate on the demands voted on by the bargaining caucus in November. The Company has stated that the $1,000 early ratification bonus will be off the table.