Sunrise, Florida. – AT&T union members have been on strike in the streets for a week.

Local 10’s Hannah Yechivi was in Sunrise Friday morning where Fort Lauderdale workers were striking, and they could also be seen in Miami and West Palm Beach.

Here in Florida alone, about 10,000 AT&T employees are currently on strike.

“Our contract with AT&T – our labor agreement – expired on August 3rd, and the company came to the bargaining table with representatives who can’t make decisions, and they’ve engaged in what they call surface negotiations, which are basically just formalities – nothing serious – and they don’t make decisions at the bargaining table,” said Mike Devane, president of Local 2104 CWA in Fort Lauderdale.

Therefore, on Friday morning, a group of union members gathered right outside AT&T’s offices and demanded a fair settlement with the telecommunications giant.

“There are 17,000 workers out of work in nine states, and at the end of the day, we just want to get our fair share and negotiate a fair contract,” said AT&T employee Alfonso Holloway.

The employees are all members of the Communications Workers Union of America (CWA).

On Friday and for the past seven days, they formed picket lines – something AT&T workers have not done in the past six years.

They say they are simply demanding a fair contract and that this is a strike based on unfair labor practices.

“We’re meeting in the middle, finding common ground and moving forward in negotiations,” Holloway said. “Negotiations are stuck. The company isn’t necessarily giving in or willing to negotiate fairly with the people on the union negotiating team.”

The union leader says this is the seventh day and they have no plans to slow down.

“We brought the trucks back to the warehouse, everyone left their desks and walked out,” Devane said.

“Anyone on an assembly line or in front of a work center hasn’t been paid for six days,” Holloway said.

AT&T released the following statement about the strike:

“CWA’s allegations of unfair labor practices are not based on facts. We have been engaged in substantive negotiations since day one and are committed to reaching an agreement that benefits our hard-working employees. As evidence, we have reached three agreements this year for more than 13,000 employees, including our recent tentative agreement with District 9 (West). We remain committed to working with District 3 (Southeast) in the same way,” the statement said. “We are disappointed that union leaders are calling for a strike at this point in negotiations instead of focusing their energies on constructive discussions at the bargaining table. This action unnecessarily puts the wages and well-being of our employees at risk.

“We have a range of business continuity measures in place to avoid disruption to operations and will continue to provide our customers with the excellent service they expect.”