AT&T workers rally in Conn.

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--Some 2,500 people rallied on the New Haven Green April 4 to call for a fair contract for the workers at AT&T.

The crowd was made up of members of Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 1298, which represents 5,100 workers at AT&T in Connecticut, and their supporters.

After negotiating since late February, the two sides were unable to come up with an agreement by the expiration of the old contract at midnight on April 4. Local 1298 members continued to report to work after the deadline, along with some 100,000 other CWA members at AT&T in different regions of the country.

AT&T workers whose contracts are up voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, and the union says a walkout is still on the table if negotiations don't continue.

At the heart of this dispute are the concessions that AT&T wants from its workers, even though the company is enjoying increased profits, despite the recession. "Greed, greed, greed!" is how Local 1298 President William Henderson described AT&T's contract proposal.

AT&T wants to pass on added health care costs to workers, implement a two-tier wage and benefit structure, and subcontract CWA work to nonunion companies. But the company has the money to meet workers' demands. AT&T's revenue for the fourth quarter of last year--as the economy as a whole started spiraling downward--was $31.1 billion, up 2.4 percent from a year earlier.

In the midst of the economic downturn, a strike at AT&T to curb corporate greed and defend a decent standard of living could point the way forward for workers whose bosses are using the crisis as an excuse to slash wages and benefits.