CWA members secure TA to protect jobs, empower workers

Facing an acquisition deal that would have stripped away contract protections, workers at Lumen fought back

SEATTLE, WA (October 3, 2025) — Workers at Lumen represented by the Communications Workers of America have secured a tentative agreement that will protect their union membership when parts of Lumen’s business are sold or acquired — and increase wages.

In May, AT&T announced plans to acquire Lumen’s residential fiber business across 11 states, including infrastructure in Seattle as well as cities like Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City. The workers immediately sounded the alarm on serious negative consequences for both customers and workers should the deal move forward as designed.

Per CWA, AT&T seemed poised to copy the private equity model used in its Gigapower partnership with Blackrock, relying on non-union contractors for broadband deployment. Private equity groups like Blackrock notoriously prioritize profit over all else, raising concerns that the acquisition of Luman infrastructure would lead both to a drop in service quality for customers and threats to workers’ livelihoods. In this case, AT&T was pushing to strip away essential contract protections from union workers as part of the acquisition.

Photo: CWA

In response, the workers and their CWA siblings got loud. They ran a national petition calling on the FCC and state regulators to review the sale and impose conditions to protect workers, pressuring AT&T and Lumen to negotiate over the terms of the buyout. Thanks to this mobilization, workers secured a tentative agreement to protect jobs and potentially expand union membership, announced yesterday.

“The tentative agreement expands neutrality language to all of Lumen and Lumen subsidiaries across the 15-state region of CWA District 7, opening the door to bring more members into our union,” said the union in a statement. “CWAers negotiated improved language to ensure that CWA members keep our union and our union contract in the case of future transactions or sales of any part of the Qwest business. Members also secured signing bonuses and annual 4 percent wage increases.”

Private equity approaches to business acquisitions have often resulted in slashing and burning through workers and community partnerships. Anything that doesn’t maximize profit is on the chopping block. The consequences of these buyouts and private equity’s broader acquisitions have been devastating for working people trying to afford housing, healthcare, and more, as private equity concentrates more and more wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of working families.

CWA members have won protections for themselves with this tentative agreement. But just as importantly, they’ve shown what’s possible when working people fight back against corporate greed. That’s a win for working families everywhere.