Over 20,000 AT&T workers went on strike recently across nine southern states.

The strikers are protesting what they view as a lack of good faith in current bargaining attempts. The striking workers are pushing for a new contract under the “Communications Workers of America” union.

The group representing the over 20,000 striking workers is complaining that AT&T isn’t sending the right negotiators and is acting in bad faith. According to Communications Workers of America, the company isn’t sending negotiators who have the authority to make important decisions for the workers. This giant strike represents about 8% of AT&T’s entire workforce, which, while small, is the largest strike in the industry in the last two years. The workers are pushing for better healthcare benefits and stronger job security, among a few other requests. The workers’ prior four-year contracts expired earlier this month. The strike only affects the southern states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Other states, as well as the company’s wireless business are expected to remain unaffected.

When AT&T was asked whether it expects these large strikes to produce service interruptions, the company replied that it is prepared for the strike. The thing is that the workers who’ve walked out are, for the most part, technicians and customer service representatives. AT&T, for its part, has come out saying that it disagrees with Communications Workers of America when it comes to claims of poor negotiation efforts.