Local News
- CWA Survey… We Want to hear it from you!!!!!!!!!The CWA wants to hear from you. Take the time to let us know what you think. The direction and focus has been on our members, however if we don’t hear ro you, we might not be getting the message. The QR code will send you to a survey or you can click WWW.CWA.org/2026CWASURVEY. Let us know what issues are most important to you.
- SB1296 Passes in Florida Senate 3/11/26.Florida Senate Bill 1296 (2026 session) is legislation targeting public-sector unions, primarily aiming to make it harder for them to maintain certification. It requires unions to have at least 50% of all employees in a bargaining unit vote for them to remain recognized. This bill aims to overhaul the process by which public employee unions are certified and maintained in Florida. It passed the Florida Senate on March 6, 2026, and is now moving to the House.Key Provisions:
- Higher Voting Thresholds: Non-public safety unions (like those for teachers and sanitation workers) must now secure a majority vote of all employees in the bargaining unit to be certified or recertified, rather than just a majority of those who actually cast a ballot.
- “Showing of Interest”: Requires unions to submit “showing of interest” forms signed by at least 30% of employees within the last 12 months for any certification or recertification petition.
- Union Leave Restrictions: Narrows the ability of union members to use paid leave for union activities unless the union fully reimburses the employer.
- Exemptions: Specifically excludes “public safety” unions, such as those representing police officers, firefighters, and correctional officers.
- Financial Disclosures: Expands the financial information unions must provide during annual registration, including salaries of high-level officers.
Florida Senate (.gov) +5
Current Status:
The bill passed the Senate with a 20-14 vote on March 6, 2026. It now heads to the Florida House, where a similar companion bill (HB 995) is already under consideration.Why is it important here you might ask? If they can erode our sister Locals in th public sector, who do think is next?Call your Florida Senator and Congressperson and them to stop this bill! - Transfers-Wire Technicians
- AT&T putting its retail stores in trouble
AT&T has been transitioning corporate-owned, union-staffed stores to third-party authorized retailers
to significantly reduce operational costs, increase profitability, and streamline its retail footprint. This strategy, accelerated by shareholder pressure to cut billions in expenses, allows AT&T to maintain a branded retail presence while passing the overhead, staffing, and training costs to authorized dealers. However, the customer experiences at these Authorized Retailers has been sub par at best. Because of different sales systems, it is possible that a phone purchased at an authorized retailer can not be returned to a corporate store or another authorized retailer. But because the stores are often set up to look similar, some customers don’t know they are talking to another company’s employee.AT&T Corporate Stores are union employee’s. They are vested experiences sales experts that have many years of experience. They have a better understanding of incentives and bundles that AT&T have to offer and they have the customers best interred in mind. So the next time you enter a AT&T Store, ask if the sales representatives are AT&T employees, and if they are union. If they are, your in good hands.
- AT&T Partnering with Amazon LEO
AT&T, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Amazon Leo announced work to modernize the nation’s connectivity infrastructure. Building on a long-standing relationship, the companies will combine AT&T’s expansive fiber network with the security, reliability, performance and AI capabilities of AWS to create a more resilient, adaptive, and future-ready connectivity solution.
AT&T will migrate workloads from several of its current on-premises technologies to AWS’s on-premises, managed hybrid cloud offering to improve the speed of its operation. AT&T, with the assistance of AWS Professional Services, is using Amazon Q Developer and other Amazon Services to accelerate the migration of network service enablement. As a result, AT&T expects to improve its resilience posture due to improved infrastructure management and faster modernization of business support systems.
To further strengthen AWS’s robust cloud infrastructure for all customers, AT&T will connect AWS data center locations with high-capacity fiber. This will enable AWS to continue to deliver and scale its secure, reliable, and high-performance cloud services for customers building and deploying advanced AI applications at scale.
AT&T will also collaborate with Amazon Leo, Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite network that operates as a separate Amazon business. Amazon Leo will provide internet connectivity services to AT&T, enabling AT&T to broaden its connectivity capabilities and deliver fixed broadband services to business customers in areas where such services are needed.
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