AT&T's service outage impacts Charleston amid Communications Workers strike

LOWCOUNTRY, S.C. (WCIV) — Friday marked one week since the Communications Workers of America District 3, declared a strike, and some people are waking up without internet due to the unresolved negotiations.

The outage map shows a massive radius of service interruptions encompassing James Island, a large portion of downtown Charleston, parts of Mount Pleasant and West Ashley, as well as portions of Hanahan, Goose Creek, and Ladson.

Contract negotiations between AT&T and the Communications Workers of America began in late June, continuing through the contract expiry on August 3rd. The group claims that AT&T negotiators engaged in bad faith bargaining.

The district comprising of around 17,000 workers and close to 200 in Charleston, went on strike after filing a labor charge with the National Labor Relations Board.

In a press release on Wednesday, CWA announced that AT&T and the union held their first meeting with a federal mediator in hopes of reaching a new contract agreement for District 3. According to a recent blog post from the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation, mediators exist as problem-solvers, saying, “a true mediator is nonpartisan and is equally responsible to everyone at the bargaining table.”

The Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service describes this bargaining mediation as “the voluntary process in which a third-party neutral assists labor and management to reach agreement on a negotiated collective bargaining agreement.”

AT&T customers in the Lowcountry may be hoping that agreement comes sooner rather than later, as Charleston’s CWA Local 3704 possesses distinct leverage. At the time of publication, AT&T’s outage map shows vast swathes of service outages around Charleston that are net getting fix as quickly as usual due to the strike.

As of 5:30 a.m. Friday, smaller outages appear to be present in parts of the Parkwood Estates, Parkwood Heights, and Westborough neighborhoods in West Ashley and several homes between 6th and 7th Avenue in Isle of Palms. In Mount Pleasant, a 3.5 mile stretch from near Mount Pleasant Academy across Bowman Road is reported as experiencing service problems.

Delays in repairs are to be expected per Local 3704, as they estimate around 30 managers, engineers, and replacement workers from across the southeast have been called in to work in the striking workers place.

"I don't know if it was caused by equipment failure or what not, but our people are the ones out there that can fix this and get it up and going properly," says CWA Local 3704 President Bill Johnson. "But AT&T wants to play games at the bargaining table by not bargaining in good faith, so unfortunately, now it's starting to have effects on the customers."

Johnson says Local 3704 workers have been working to service and maintain many effected customers for years. "We love our customers," he says. "We want them to have service, we want them to stay with AT&T, but we need AT&T to bargain the contract in good faith with us to be able to do that so we can get back to work and get everyone back and going."

In an August 16th statement, AT&T says “We have various business continuity measures in place to avoid disruptions to operations and will continue to provide our customers with the great service they expect.”

AT&T has been contacted regarding the cause of the outages and what the aforementioned "business continuity measures" entail but has yet to respond as of publication.