NEW YORK: More than 20,000 AT&T workers in nine Southern states went on strike saying that the telecommunications company isn’t bargaining in good faith over a new contract. The union, the Communications Workers of America, says AT&T isn’t sending negotiators who have the authority to make decisions.

The workers who have walked off are technicians and customer service representatives for AT&T’s “wireline” home and business internet and phone division, not its cellphone division.

AT&T says it disagrees with the union’s claims of bad bargaining practices.

The AT&T workers are on strike in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Telecom workers periodically go on strike, including about 17,000 AT&T workers in a one-day walkout in California and Nevada in 2017 and 39,000 Verizon workers who struck for six weeks in 2016.

(Agencies)