AT&T sent some workers home for wearing T-shirts critical of the company Tuesday, a move AT&T justified but the union said went too far.

The company and its union in Connecticut, the Communication Workers of America Local 1298, are in the midst of contract negotiations. Workers have gone without a contract since April 4, said Bill Henderson, president of the union, which represents some 4,000 AT&T employees.

Henderson said union workers wore black-and-white T-shirts to work Tuesday that state, "A prisoner of AT$T" on the back and "Inmate #," using the employees' code number on the front.

Henderson said the company disciplined workers by suspending them.

There is no uniform or dress code at AT&T and workers regularly wear union shirts on the job without facing discipline, the union said in a statement. Sending workers home is retaliation for the union's unwillingness to accept a contract offer unless it secures jobs in the state, the union added.

AT&T disputed the union's characterization of its actions, saying employees who work face-to-face with customers were not disciplined, but rather "given the option of changing shirts or choosing to go home."

"We respect our employees' rights to express their opinion, but when an employee is going into a customer's home representing the company, wearing clothing that disparages the company is not appropriate," said AT&T spokesman Walt Sharp.

Henderson added that employees were being unfairly "locked out" of their jobs, but AT&T said that is not the case.

"These employees are not being locked out," Sharp said. "They're being asked to dress appropriately for their jobs."

Sharp noted that AT&T has either tentatively or definitively ratified contracts with half its employees across the country, including those in the Midwest, West, Illinois and Indiana. Some of the terms of the new contracts include 3 percent raises the first two years, 2.75 percent raises in the third year, 2 percent pension increases for three years and slight increases in health care contributions, he said.

CWA 1298 is due back at the negotiating table, he added.

Henderson said CWA 1298 has passed more than 500 items across the negotiating table to AT&T but the company has not found any acceptable. CWA Local 1298's main goal in these talks is to protect Connecticut jobs, the union said, since AT&T has moved more than 1200 jobs out of the state.

"We find ourselves after 1,000 hours of negotiations back to where we started, at point zero and going nowhere fast," Henderson said.

Sharp said he can't comment on the particulars of the bargaining process but noted, "It doesn't happen at all when there's nobody at the bargaining table. And there's nobody at the table today."

p.daddona@theday.com