Mississippi AT&T customers see service disruptions as workers’ strike enters 3rd week – National & International News – FRI 6Sep2024
Service disruptions as AT&T workers’ strike enters third week.
Father of Georgia high school shooter charged.
Israeli forces fatally shoot American woman in West Bank protest.
NATIONAL NEWS
Service disruptions as AT&T workers’ strike enters third week
AT&T customers in Mississippi and elsewhere in the southeast may have noticed some service disruptions lately. That is because more than 17,000 AT&T workers across the region have been on strike for 20 days. Workers went on strike after months of negotiations finally reached an impasse last month. Communications Workers of America, the union which represents telecom workers at AT&T and other companies, is continuing to negotiate with AT&T to hammer out an agreement.
AT&T has made an offer, which it called a “final offer”. However, CWA says that this is the first formal complete offer AT&T has made since negotiations began. AT&T and CWA seem to still be far apart on a deal, and the company and CWA are also providing conflicting accounts of the details of the offer.
In an email and a video address directed at employees, AT&T claims that their offer includes an 18% raise over 5 years, reduced mandatory overtime, and a 25% increase to the company’s contributions to workers’ health insurance. The company also urged workers to call on CWA to bring the deal to a vote. However, CWA says that the company is being deceptive and negotiating in bad faith. For instance, CWA says AT&T’s healthcare proposal actually increases upfront costs for workers. CWA has submitted a counteroffer, to which AT&T has not yet responded.
Among those on strike are AT&T’s army of technicians who maintain the system and normally remedy any disruptions or equipment failures. The company has been forced to send out managers and some private contractors to maintain and repair equipment. Jermaine Travis, the president of the CWA local in Jackson, says that disruptions are likely to continue because these replacement workers are not necessarily familiar with Mississippi’s terrain and the safety hazards and special problems it can create for equipment.
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Father of Georgia high school shooter charged
Colin Gray, 54, whose 14-year-old son Colt gunned down four people at Apalachee high School in Winder, GA, on Wednesday, has been arrested in connection with the incident. Colt has been charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder. In court today, the judge presiding over the case informed Colt that he could potentially face life in prison. His father Colin has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children. If convicted on all charges, he could potentially face 180 years in prison.
Colin is being charged for allowing his son access to the AR platform rifle that he used in his rampage. This follows a recent trend of prosecuting the parents of minor children who commit violent crimes. Earlier this year, Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, were each sentenced to over 10 years in prison for failing to take steps to prevent their son’s crime. Last year, a Virginia mother was sentenced to 21 months in prison after her 6-year-old son brought a gun to his elementary school, where he shot and severely wounded his first grade teacher.
In Colt’s case, it remains unclear how he came to be in possession of the weapon. In May 2023, local law enforcement questioned both Colt and Colin about online threats to carry out a shooting at an unspecified time and place. Colt denied making the threats, while Colin asserted that his son did not have access to guns. Without sufficient probable cause, police took no further action at that time. Authorities are investigating the possibility that Colin may have purchased the AR-15 style rifle for his son as a Christmas present, months after that investigation concluded.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Israeli forces fatally shoot American woman at protest in West Bank
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish American, was shot dead today while taking part in a protest near Nablus in the West Bank. It appears she was shot by Israeli defense forces, who fired live rounds into a crowd of protesters after someone threw rocks at them. Other activists and medics rushed to her aid but were unable to resuscitate her.
Eygi was taking part in a protest against the expansion of Israeli Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Nablus has been a major focus of settlement building for decades. The settlements are often financed by wealthy Americans and used by Jewish Israeli to illegally seize Palestinian territory in the West Bank. The International Court of Justice recently ruled these settlements illegal and ordered them to be immediately dismantled. As with the court’s recent order to end their assault in Rafah, Israel has paid this order from the ICJ no heed.
While the US has called on Israel to investigate Eygi’s death, there have never been any serious diplomatic consequences in past instances where the Israeli military has killed Americans who were conducting peaceful and lawful activities in the Palestinian territories. In May 2022, veteran Al Jazeera journalist and Palestinian-American Shireen Abu Akleh was shot in the head while covering an IDF raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. She was wearing a blue press vest at the time. Israeli officials initially tried to blame Palestinian militants for Akleh’s death, even though there were no Palestinian militants in the area. An investigation later found that the bullet that killed her came from an IDF weapon. No one was held accountable for Akleh’s killing.
In 2003 during the Second Intifada, Rachel Corrie, 23, was protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza. While trying to prevent the demolition of a home in Rafah, an Israeli armored bulldozer ran over her and crushed her. Corrie was wearing a high visibility vest, and physicians and other activist present said that her killing was deliberate. The Israeli army claimed that the bulldozer operator did not see her, and later ruled her death an accident.
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