Telecommunications union workers picket in Greenville

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – Telecommunications workers raised their pickets and voices on the side of busy Greenville Boulevard Tuesday morning.

The Communications Workers of America, also known as CWA is demanding that Brightspeed Internet stop outsourcing their workers to contractors.

Union representative Brian Sawyer says bringing high-speed internet throughout the east is important and in order to do that, they need a fairer contract.

“They mandate overtime and have extenuating long hours and require these technicians to go outside of their normal work areas extensively for prolonged periods. We want to address that in bargaining because we believe that if Brightspeed has an adequate labor force staffed, the work-life balance can be maintained,” Brain Sawyer, the union representative said.

Sawyer added that another major point of their negotiation is to prevent overloading understaffed workers with Brightspeed providing an adequate labor force for them.

Tuesday morning was the first negotiation meeting between CWA and Bright speed in the state.

WITN reached out to Bright speed and has not heard back.

According to Sawyer, the current contract for the union expires on June 7th and they will be continuing the mobilization until then.

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