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CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) –

AT&T employees in northeast Ohio walked out Friday afternoon, forcing some stores to close.

Employees, who are members of the Communications Workers of America, walked out of the Independence store at exactly 3 p.m. Friday, and the store then closed for the day. The employees formed a picket line outside of the store, holding signs that say things like, “On Strike for Good Jobs.”

Hillary Frishkorn, one of the employees who decided to walk out, told Cleveland 19 it’s important for her to take a stand on issues like outsourcing of call centers, health care, and pay. Frishkorn said the weekend walkout is a temporary move with a specific purpose.

“Basically we’re trying to avoid a full on strike,” said Frishkorn. “We want AT&T to understand that we’re serious. We want them to come to the table and give us a fair contract.”

Frishkorn said that employees are fighting to keep middle class jobs.

“Unions fight for everyone. If you look back in history we fought to have a 40-hour work week. Unions benefit other companies, and other workers as well because we help drive up the standard of employee care and employee treatment we deserve to live a good life with good income and have good jobs just like everyone else, and everyone else’s definitely welcome to join us and hopefully they can see that corporate greed doesn’t need to take over,” said Frishkorn.  “We’re at a critical period in our country where we need to look at the huge discrepancy between the corporate interests and their money and what’s happening to the middle-class people of America who are losing money, we’re losing jobs and this is the time to support and really come out and make a difference.”

 

READ MORE: Cleveland19.com

Article Courtesy of WOIO Cleveland 19 News

Picture Courtesy of Paul J. Richards and Getty Images

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