Local union of Brightspeed workers claim contract proposal was rejected; company disputes claim

DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN) — The local CWA union of Brightspeed workers says their counterproposal of putting a cap on overtime hours was rejected by the company this week. They say they are trying to get more of a fair contract because they believe their current one is not fair.

“The company did I got an email saying they reject that proposal in its entirety and they did not come back with any kind of counter-proposal,” Local CWA 3792 President Jerry Sain said.

The Brightspeed corporate office, who declined to interview with us at the time, claims the email is inaccurate and they have not rejected a proposal. Yet, Sain said he received it early Thursday afternoon.

“I don’t know if maybe they got their timelines conflicted but I do have the email where they say they rejected the offer that could have ended all of this,” Sain said.

For the last month, the Wiregrass internet service providers have been working on a temporary contract that was recently extended last week.

This comes after their labor agreement expired on March 12 and after it expired their tentative agreement was voted down by members of the union in April.

“It’s just on a day-by-day basis and from what I have been told it could be June because of the conflicting schedules between the union and company, so hopefully we can work something out,” He said.

Until then, Brightspeed will continue its mobilization effort they will have an informational picket in Enterprise Saturday. They held one in downtown Dothan just a few weeks ago.

“We got quite a bit of support, a lot of people stopping and asking what CWA was and what we are fighting for and a lot of people could relate to the wages, overtime, and sick time,” He said.

Sain said a potential strike is not out of the question.

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