CWA, AT&T disagree on use of "passed" in April 1 contract negotiations

We will put up but we will never shut up you see if it were not for our now retirees who struck the company in 1973 for healh care that managers also received on CWA members backs and who have been rideing our coat tails ever since. So the next time you see a CWA retiree thank him for what you have young man because if it were not for him you would not have the little bit that you have today

So, my question I typed in my search engine was, "how much does AT&T want their retirees to pay for healthcare if contract 2009 passes." I really can't seem to find any concrete answers to this. I know from all the reading I have been doing is that the company isn't answering many questions but don't we have some real numbers to go by? I retired in 2003 and so far we are "getting by", mostly because of my low healthcare costs. Even though my husband has advanced agressive protate cancer that has spread to his bladder and bones with our low copays etc from my AT&T Healthcare we are still being able to pay our bills and eat. But I have to say I am very worried. Before this, all I had to worry about was his health deterrioating. NOW I have to worry about IF we are going to be able to afford to keep his medical insurance or if we are going to have to decide to pick between paying large premiums, deductibles and copays OR losing our home, buying groceries or running the air conditioning when it is 120 degrees here in Phoenix this Summer! I KNOW, I KNOW, MOST AMERICANS ARE FACING SOME OF THE SAME HARD DECISIONS. But remember I am retired from one of the largest corps in the world. I did my time. We worked every day of our lives, sometimes 18 hrs a day. We haven't asked for food stamps, unemploymnet or help from our church at any time in our lives. So now to get this kick in the face when I retired under a contract that I thought would give me what we needed for the rest of our (short) lives...What am I supposed to do now? I worked very hard at AT&T, put my daughter through college and grad school with cash I earned working hard long hours. I bought a nice but modest home that was within our means on those same AT&T wages. I can't find anywhere that I was irresponsible in my retirement planning. Except I hadn't counted on the company suddenly deciding to pull the rug out from under my feet 5 yrs later! So anyone know the answer to my search engine question? How much has the company proposed I need to budget for my healthcare now? Please, no bad-mouthing answers to me about unions, scabs,etc. My emotions are fragal with caring for my dying husband of 32 yrs and reading contract negoitation reports and updates. Just the hard facts if you have them please. Thanks and God Bless everyone who is stuggling.

Cable cut in the bay area. Police Investigators believe it is an inside job. Have called in the FBI. Police and FBI say this was a deliberate act of violence and the person had to have the skill to know what they were doing. Put over 50,000 landlines out of business, 911, police, fire and hospitals. If they do get the person, and with a $250,000 reward. They most surely will. THis will not bode well for strikers expecting the public sympathy vote.

I hope none of us forget when this is all said and done; we have to work together. It's also very important to remember the decision-makers are not in your local offices.
That being said, everyone knew these issues (benefits / pensions/ job titles), would be on the table this year. The bottom line is the operating cost of our biggest competitor (cable) is much lower than ours.
I like most Managers began my career as a non-mgmt person, and yes I was a proud card carrying Union member. We have different roles in the business, but at the end of the day we are all “worker bees”. You have to make a decision about what’s important to you and make the appropriate choices. If you can not live with the idea of paying a greater percentage of your healthcare, then you have to decide if that is indeed a “deal breaker” for you. I imagine it will come down to determining how much health care will cost each employee, not if in fact it will happen. At some point you have to face the reality of the situation at hand. There is very little to no support of the Union’s position by the public. It may seem unfair the contract expired during very turbulent times, but it is what it is. You may not like it…but this is the hand your were dealt. I pray the contract issues is resolved & we as a business can move on. I have the highest respect for folks in the call centers and working out in the field. If you can peform these jobs, you can make it anywhere in the business. Please… do not re-hash why then should you have to pay. You know why… the timing is like a “perfect storm”.

I am not sure you and others are aware of what is going on. I had 13 years in the Telco's. I was not fired. Get the picture??? I cannot hold out much longer. (no job)
We are here and waiting for the strike. I HATE THAT SO MANY JOBS HAVE BEEN SENT OUT OF USA!!
None-the-less, scraps are better than nothing at all. We are here....indeed.

The american public, while upset over the bailouts, corporate bonus etc, will also have no sympathy for CWA workers who say they make SIX FIGURES with OT, striking because they may have to pay a PORTION of their medical costs. Yes your jobs may require more training than what At&T provided their managers, but do you really think, with unemployment near 10 percent, and many recent telecom TRAINED people OUT of WORK...there is no one out there to pick up the slack?

thank you for one of the few intelligent, well written comments posted here.

Re: public support - The Parade magazine on 03/22/09 reports 92% of Americans surveyed feel Unions are necessary to improving American jobs. Consumer confidence in upper management and CEO's "interest" in the greater good of employees and customers is at an all time low. Could it be the huge golden parachutes that we have seen in failed Wall Street company’s hasn't gone over too well?
I and my co-workers can afford to walk - if we don't we will have nothing to come back to. What we are fighting for ultimately is also our manager's hope - If our jobs go to non-employees in Ottawa, Canada then it is obvious that manager's jobs will go too.(yes, if you look up the reps that call us for help you'll see: non-employee Missouri, non-employee Ottawa, non-employee Texas . . .)

Please let me know what we have if we "cross the line" because I am positive that puts my job on the line. I'd rather gamble on the leverage of a CWA strike than agree with:
1)Taking away health benefits from the fixed income retirees (These are the folks who built this company- wire by wire, call by call-remember? They are in their 60's,70's,80's+ -- they are the ones who don't have enough years left to recover from the stock market meltdown.)
2)Transferring "surplus" technicians to non-benefit, no pension, low wage prem techs.
3) Requiring sales quotas at the call centers - A perfect recipe for slamming, cramming and interesting enough ends up being expensive for AT&T as they deal with huge turnover, and very unhappy customers.

AT&T is profitable because of the foundation of wire line - I am wire line, yes and I am Uverse, wireless and high speed internet - These are not a declining portion of the company.
We are all involved, as we should be, in creating the profit for AT&T. As I sell Uverse, DSL and wireless stacked with or without a pots line I know I am simply dealing with the evolved technology of the landline that began AT&T in the late 1800's. - When the original party line went to private in-home numbers, When dialing a crank phone went to a cordless handset, When dialup when to DSL - It didn't stop being AT&T - It didn't stop being communications - It didn't stop being your job or my job. There are no isolated "land line" folks. Thankfully we all still have a part in the ever changing AT&T. It can be exciting, it can be exhausting but we are all the profitable AT&T.
What CWA is simply a collective, effective balance for an ever evolving greed at the corporate-level. It is me, it is my co-worker.
It is a voice that disagrees with a management that says "there aren't enough educated Americans to fill AT&T jobs". -A company that says "Sunday is just another day". -A management that mistakenly thinks that they alone have created the gains of this company.
Our jobs are on the line so we will not cross the line.

Posted by Retired | April 5, 2009 - 9:51am
Well now it's time for your union leadership to put up or shut up.

Amen Brother!

Well now it's time for your union leadership to put up or shut up. You authorized them to call a strike if no agreement was reached. I hope you walk so that I can make some money to pay for the health care costs that you have burdened the retirees with. You don't seem to want to share in these costs, but instead prefer to saddle us with them so you can have everything paid for you.

I have always been proud to be employed by SWBT, SBC and now ATT. I retired and came back as a temp. cable splicer. I count myself lucky that I was never promoted but know many good people who were, and they have a duty to work in my place while I carry a picket sign. I have a duty to support bargaining so that this won't be remembered by our successors as the year we sold out their jobs. If this were confined to one or two areas of disagreement, reasonable people could work something out. Management has drawn the line in the sand that we have to call them on. The training and the contractors don't scare me. I've seen what passes for contracted help and most of them look like they spent alot of time working carnival rides. You managers take care and don't get hurt. I know most of you don't WORD DOC from MS WORD and haven't worked higher than your guttering at home. I know alot of you haven't ever driven anything bigger than a Honda Accord, so I'm very serious when I ask you to be careful. Everyone who works here brings an expertise to his job that isn't always appreciated by the other side. You are about to find out how much we do to make an overly complex system work in spite of itself.

LOOK WHEN YOU HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING ELSE AND EVERYTHING ELSE HAS FAILED.. TRY WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE 1ST PLACE....

PRAY THAT EVERYTHING THING COMES TO A REASONABAL AGREEMENT FOR BOTH SIDES.........

PRAY TO GOD IN THE NAME OF JESUS!!!

Public support is not going to be there this time because we have the highest unemployment rate in the country since 1983.

I know it was my decision to be a manager and I am ok with that. But I am not getting screwed by the union, I will never hold a grudge over a union member getting something I don't have and I don't want to see a strike because too many of the people I care about in the company cannot afford to walk.

It's ridiculous to me that if someone were to cross the line to try and save there house or anything else that the CWA has the right to sue that member for the wages. Being in the union is not mandatory but the CWA puts pressure on everybody to do it their way or else.

The CWA does not care about it's individual members, just like AT&T doesn't care about the front line management. We are all expendable.

What's the definition of a fair contract? Is having the contract more in line with the Mobility contract that was just ratified by Members of the CWA Orange contract so un-fair that it's an insult to try and get something similar to the declining portion of the company.

AT&T is profitable because of Wireless and other emerging services, not because of us land line folks.

Can you imagine, going to work each day and customer yelling at you? Let me tell you a little bit about how "easy" my job is. Every day, I go to work to earn money to pay my bills and feed my family. However, the public uses me daily as their whipping toy. They complain to me because their hold time was long, because I don't know their number, because I dont' understand their "version" of the english languange. This is for openers people. Then, in less then 6 minutes, since my time is being recorded-I have to save Att's revenue-by saving the customer's business, save the customer money, because they claim they can't afford it-even though they refused to bundle their services with us, and upgrade them to Tv and a cell phone. I've literally been told by customers that they hope I lose my job, and understand their situations. I'm sorry I forgot that i'm the Ceo of the company and just answer the phone for fun here. I didn't make 12 billion dollars last year, that was Att. But the public doesn't care, I save them 5-20 a month, and they are ungrateful. You credit them a month of service and they complain because it wasn't 6 months of service. I can go on and on...here's the bottom line. I'm stuck in the middle, I need a job-I have one at Att, but the customers are vulgar, yell at me daily, and yet want the world. Vinegar gets you no where. The union, truthfully, hasn't done much for me lately. It's not a secret. The last contract, they went on strike for 3 lame days, and here we are in the middle of the pile again. This time it will be awhile, i'm looking forward to a break from the ungrateful customers, enjoy the people that don't have 10 years of experience-who know how to actually fix your account not just sell you a package that you'll call back to cancel because it was quoted wrong. You'll miss us because you need us, like we need you. I just hope that you won't treat me like dirt everyday. It would be great if I could yell back at you, to let you know exactly how it feels. But then again, your "valued" and i'm not. I deserve the money I get, I work hard for it, and you could do my job if you tried-literally.

FWIW my personal opinion and that of every craft worker I know is that scabs are people that have a choice on crossing the picket line, i.e. other craft workers...we know the managers don't have a choice if they want to keep their jobs and have don't want a strike any more than we do. However the co. has been intent on forcing one for quite some rtime, Mark Royce (head of labor relations) made this clear in his inflammatory email sent to all employees last August after Verizon gave their workers a decent contract and he said at&t had no intention of following suit...

nope, dead wrong...that post was made to a bargaining info site accessible to the public and was the first bargaining update in 12 days. the wording "proposals were passed" was later changed to the very awkward "proposals were proposed" without any explanation or apology....highly literate and professiional on at&t's part

Please don't use the word Scab. we are all in this together. After intense training, I as a managment employee, appreciate the cwa workers skills and talents. I can not do your job. How ever we are placed in a situation to try, thanks to big brother SBC. God bless you if you can make big brother fix this health care mess. But in reality this is it. We should be greatful we have good jobs with a somewhat good health care plan. Please respect your fellow management employees, we are just being used in this situation. PLEASE DO NOT STRIKE and respect your fellow AT&T associate. we are all in this together...

HEY, I WAS ON BOTH SIEDES OF THE FENCE. I WAS A CWA MEMBER AND PROMOTED YEARS AGO TO MGMT. BOTTOM LINE, YES CWA HAS A RIGHT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE CRUMMY HEALTH PLAN. MGMT HAD IT FOR 2 YEARS, WITH NO RAISE. BUT THIS IS NOW REALITY. YOU LIKE YOUR SALARY? THERE ARE PEOPLE, UNEMPLOYED WHO WOULD JUMP IN YOUR JOBS, WITH THE CRUMMY HEALTH CARE. LOOK BACK, at&t HAS PAID OUR MORGAGES AND BILLS FOR YEARS. WE, MGMT AND OCCPATIONAL EMPLOYESS (CWA) HAVE BEEN OVER PAID FOR YEARS....COME ON, WE KNOW IT. WE MAKE GOOD MONEY. AS A MGMT EMPLOYEE, I RESPECT THE CWA WORKERS AND THERE CONCERNS. BUT COME ON... A STRIKE WILL HURT US BOTH. SBC IS "BIG BROTHER" AND A STRIKE WILL WILL HURT BOTH MGMT AND OCCUPATIONAL WORKERS. BOTTOM LINE, WE WILL JUST BE HURTING OURSELVES. PLEASE. PLEASE COME TO A AGREEMENT!!!!

Truth Be Said - In the last 18 years I have worked in over 10 billing systems and countless web applications. Although I am from wireless your systems aren't all that foreign to me. They all follow a similar logic and aren't that hard to figure out. I was able to guess my way through EVERY system and web application in the training I was forced to endure. I made a game out of it by seeing how many pretests I could pass so I didn't have to do the whole course (saved HOURS of my time). It was really amusing to see the DOS based systems still being used. As to the customer service aspect. I have been a CSR in the past and the same rules of listening, assisting and defusing an angry customer haven't changed. I haven't worked in a call center for over 10 years but I know I can survive filling a bargained employees shoes for however long is needed. Gripe about the company but don't bash those of us who are filling for you.

As for management Retirees , you you have been retired for more than one year from either landline or wireless , you will be surprised a six week training has not prepared you for the new systems , or our customers.......

I am retired from att wireless as a manager and they have been getting retirees from both wireline and wireless ready to work the day the strike starts.

So this was supposed to be black Friday. I didn’t see anybody at my location “Mobilizing”.
Direct quote from CWA D4 -
Mobilization News: With a little over 24 hours left until contract expiration, members are packing up their desks, turning in keys, badges and putting on their walking shoes. Many Locals have candlelight vigils planned for Saturday. They’re ready to put this contract to rest and do whatever it takes to reach a new agreement that is fair and meets the needs of our members.

My guess is the union is going to take whatever is on the table literally at the 11th hour.
If you don't strike (and I'm betting you don't) whatever credibility unions have as serious about protecting their members and getting what they believe is a "Just & Fair" agreement goes out the window.
I hope you do strike. Mostly because I’m sick of “UNITED WE BARGAIN……….. DIVIDED WE BEG!!!!!!!!!!!
You are already begging and a heck of a lot of whining too! Put up or shut up!

just remember as management if we are not here .. you wont either , att will want to stop paying you your top salary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Has the CWA noticed that AT&T has one of the biggest, baddest marketing campaigns on the planet. Competing with card board signs is not going to work. You all really need to think this thru before you strike. You will be locked out for 60 days. Nothing stays in the press that long. It will be a story for about a week.

No one is complaining. I like my job, I like getting a paycheck and I like working for the company. Just pointing out that getting all radical is going to do the CWA laborers no benefit. And as far as the public, we shall see. I think you might be surprised. Folks were pissed about Maddoff, AIG, Fannie etc; but the beat goes on. No one I know that is going to take these temporary jobs is critical of the union. Except, everyone thinks you have to pay for healthcare, the same way we do.

If you believe that public support is not going to be there you are wrong!!!!!!!! People can't stand to see companies that are greedy in this economy. Specially when AT&T is getting tax payers money from the stability plan. You should be thankful that you have health benefits for free. It was your decision to become management so stop complaining about getting screwed by the union.

First, I am management and I truly can appreciate the Unions position to not give up any of their current benefits. I am greatly concerned that the CWA is absolutely clueless as on how to accomplish what they are trying to do. The union is coming across as contentious and bullying, that is not going to play well with the public. Your PR stinks. The company got what they wanted with the CWA and Mobility. There is no way for wireline to win this. In 60, 90 or 120 days you will end up agreeing to what is on the table. You can't win a fight just for the sake of fighting. I understand your position on it being a profitable company, but you are not on the profitable side of the business. Your contributions have been key to the success of the company. But the value unfortunately for you all is just not there anymore. It is called leverage, and the company has it right now.

to uniongirlforlife it wont just be your manegment there are thousands upon thousands of contractors out there that actually make aliving doing all the craft jobs and are very good at them there will be plenty of support for at&t if you walk dont kid yourself

"AT&T will see our wrath..."

I hope you are not typical of most union members. It's hard to make the case that the union is the good guy in this mess with crazy talk like that. Keep in mind that PR is important here, and unions already have a problem in that area with the death of the auto companies.

Just wan to comment to all those who are ready to strike... AT&T dose not have the man power to answers calls and not be fined. on stike day i urge all 120,000 to also tie up AT&T LINES, by calling in for anything and nothing.. AT&T will see our wrath!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

REALLY , SUSAN B .

THIS IS NOT A CAR COMPANY, PEOPLE CAN TAKE THE BUS WALK EVEN CARPOOL.. YOU CANT COMPARE AT&T TO A AR COMPANY, THAT IS LIKE SAYING OBAMA IS JUST LIKE PRESIDENT KENNEDY, OUTRAGES. AT&T IS A TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANY, AND I AM SURE YOU HAVE A PHONE , YOU CANT CARPOOL A CAR OR TAKE A RIDE ON SOMEONE ELSE PHONE.

YOU HAVE TOLD US THAT AT&T IS GREEDY, YOU HAVE TOLD US THAT THEY WANT TO HIRE CONTRACTORS, YOU HAVE TOLD US THEY WANT TO CHANGE OUR PAY OUTS, THEY WANT TO CHANGE MONITORING , CHANGE OUR MEDICAL BENEFITS, CHANGE OUR HOURLY PAY, AND ON AND ON.

BUT WHAT HAVE YOU (CWA) DONE IN THE PAST 4 YEARS ,LET ME TELL YOU WHAT . YOU HAVE LET AT&T HIRE NON -EMPLOYEES IN TEXAS , YOU HAVE LET THEM CHANGE OUR PAY-OUTS,
YOU HAVE LET THEM CHANGE MONITORING, YOU HAVE LET THEM TAKE OUR JOBS OUT TO OTHER COUNTRIES. YOU FIGHT AMONG EACH OTHER, OVER ELECTIONS WHEN YOUR PRIORITY SHOULD BE THE MEMBERS , EVEN NOW WHEN THE CONTRACT IS ALMOST OVER. YOUR VERY OWN CWA STEWARDS CLAIMING THAT THE CWA TOP OFFICIALS HAVE TAKEN KICKBACKS, SOLD OUT. CWA HAS DONE SO LITTLE IN THE PAST 4 YEARS , AND THAT IS THE REASON WE ARE IN BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE, BECAUSE CWA HAS FORGOTTEN THEIR PURPOSE , THEIR REASON FOR UNITY . CWA HAS BECOME GREEDY. NO PURPOSE.
LIKE SELFISH PEOPLE, LIKE CORRUPT POLITICIANS, WE AS MEMBERS HAVE SEEN IT 1ST HAND. YOU HAVE LOST YOUR PATH. YOU HAVE LOST THE PURPOSE UNIONS HAD IN THE EARLY DAYS. YOU CLAIM YOU HAVE POLITICAL BACK UP, ALL YOU HAVE ARE WORDS. YOU ARE DIVIDED AMONG YOURSELVES AND IN SO YOU WILL FALL APART. I TELL YOU YOU WILL SEE IT WHEN YOUR MEMBERS START DEFECTING!

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CWA MEMBERS

In 1968, Local 134 went out on strike against Illinois Bell for five months. The CWA went back to work in six weeks. If you are going to strike, you better be ready to walk the picket lines for a long time

You know this sort of expectation was had by the Auto Workers Union...I can't wait to see when AT&T needs $$ to get bailed out because of their greedy employees. Notice to all...You would be smart to sell your stock before it's worth $2.50 when PR gets ahold of this.

I guess it depends on what part of the country you are in and what medical plans are available to you. I can tell you I have been retired since 2004 and I am paying $201.00/month and in addition have a $2,300.00 deductible before anything is covered. After the deductible is satisfied then most in-network expenses are covered at the 90% level.

I seen the comment before about how nobody wins in a strike and that is BS. the company wins. not the non-bargained for folks that they make work ridiculous hours for no pay but the real greedy people who sit on top make out fine. the economy being bad is garbage.. this bad economy forced all this little clecs at&t hated to close up and go out of business. so don't listen to that garbage.. but you have to understand that as bargaining unit that management people going to work absolutely hate this! if you think you are toyed with a lot and you are union you should try becoming management and then you'll see how you are disrespected and treated like garbage and you will see how much you really don't matter.

I have a question for everyone. feel free to give your honest opinion. for the last year we've heard about "corporate greed" and how someone has to do something about it. I'm not a member of CWA but i do have to say, it seems like these people are standing up for what everyone keeps saying we need to do. so why are we not supporting them instead of criticize them. according to fortune magazine this company made quite a mint last year. also I've read the proposed contract that their union put out. it seems like a fair contract thats only asking to keep status quo. why are we not standing with these folks...i don't get it

This is for Anonymous | April 3, 2009 - 12:18pm
We realize that are concessions to be made and we aren't asking for the world, just a fair contract. Everything the company has proposed has been concessionary, no increases anywhere, in fact some of the concessions the company wants are outrageous. A lot of us would be glad to work under the same contract, extend it for 1 year, until the economy gets better. We know if we go on strike we'll most likely not have the support of the public, but in the face of what the company is proposing we can't afford not to go on strike. Many of you don't know, but AT&T has been planning to make us go on strike. I learned from managers last November that the company wanted to put us out and keep us out for 3 months. This would be the reason that they refuse to negociate. Sure they present their proposals to the union, but when the union gives their's to the company they refuse to take it under consideration and won't give answers to questions the union has about different concerns. Negociations is supposed to be give and take to come to an agreement, but how can you when one side refuses to participate. We're not asking for the world just a fair contract. When AT&T first began to roll out their Uverse product they asked the union to work with them to help grow the company. We gladly wrote and called our state representatives and held rallies in support of the company. Now that contract time has come around this is the thanks we get from the company, they want to take away our job security, propose outrageous healthcare coverage, slash our pensions and push many other regressive concessions on us. AT&T is a viable and profitable company and it got that way due to the hard work of ten of thousands of dedicated, highly skilled, professional and hard working employees. They deserve better than AT&T is offering them and hopefully the company will realize that befoore it comes down to a strike, because in the end the employees, the company and the customers will all lose.

Retired - Not sure where you got your facts, but it doesn't cost mgt employees $200 a month for themselves and their spouses. Employees do not have to pay monthly cost, but they pay about $40 to add an additional person. Yes, we have a deductible that has to be met, but overall our health insurance is much better than what some other companies offer.

If you think about it, we are better off than other people within the US. We have jobs, healthcare, 401k etc. There are people who still have a job, but all of their benefits have been cut and so has their pay. They are working more for less now But you do not see them striking, they are just thankful to still have a job. A lot of them okay the cuts so they could still have a job. In addition, there people who are jobless because of this poor economy. I think the union memebers need to step up to the plate and take on some of the health care cost as well. We want our world wide company to stay profitable so all us around the world have jobs. The unions just do not affect the US part of the company, it also affects the other parts of the company through out the world.

Yes, I am in an area that has an HMO option.

I don't know what part of the company you are in where a manager doesn't pay a monthly amount for healthcare coverage (unless you have some kind of HMO). Most managers I know pay about $200/mo for themself and their spouse.

Retired Managers are crossing the lines to protect their benefits. If the union employees get everything they want all the company is going to do is cut retired management benefits. The union will have retired members on the picket line, so why shouldn't a retired manager cross the line?

As far as profit goes, every employee is a shareholder of the company one way or another, 401K, retirement, etc is typically issued in company stock so you are part of the people that are paid all of those divedends.

Just a few years ago Ford and GM were in good shape and they fell pretty quickly.

How can the CWA bargain a contract with AT&T where the Mobility employees are paying 20% of their health benefits and then claim it is unfair to ask the Landline employees to be in line with that?

As a manager I don't pay anything a month for my healthcare but my co-pays and deductibles are a little higher. If I stay healthy it doesn't cost me anything and unfortunately for me I'm overweight and having some problems so I am paying more this year for healthcare. If you smoke you pay more for life insurance, if you speed and get into accidents you pay more for car insurance, so if you don't take care of yourself shouldn't you have to pay more for healthcare?

Believe it or not I think the union is necessary evil because if it were not for the union we would not have as good of a group of employees that we currently do because the wages wouldn't be there.

It's time to get with the times though, AT&T craft employees are among the best paid in the business and you can't always gain in every contract. It's time to step back a little in a down economy and wait until the next contract to see where the economy and company is. I don't think the union should cave to the company but this time around I think they need to have more concessions than past bargaining.

This is not the right time for the union to walk out because the public support is just not going to be there. You can claim it will take 5 years to train someone to replace you but that just isn't the case, the company is trying to dumb the job down everyday so they can bring in less skilled people to do the same work. Right, wrong or otherwise new technology has come in and made these jobs easier. I haven't talked to a single union employee that can honestly say they are too busy, the work has slowed down and the work has gotten easier.

The union should be fighting for job security and not worry about the wages and healthcare as much.

The thing is the Union cares as much for it's members as AT&T cares about their employees. The CWA and AT&T are both about making money and they are playing a big game of chicken with the union members and the front line management because we are the ones that get screwed on this.

Just my $.02.

Nobody is guaranteed a pension. The company can do away with it anytime they want. If you don't think that healthcare expenses will eventually lead to this then you are being very shortsighted. It's time that the craft people share in the costs of healthcare. As retiree's we have been sharing the cost for years.

To: Posted by Retiree | April 3, 2009 - 8:57am

You are hanging yourself. The union is fighting for you as well. It is an entirely different story that "managers" are being forced to cross picket lines. We have no choice but to lose our jobs.
You have a choice. A few extra bucks or protection of your retirement.

TO: Posted by Anonymous | April 3, 2009 - 1:05am

You can fight this with unemployment. If the company puts you in a position that you have to leave you can get a hearing with the unemployment folks. It's a hassle and not much fun, but I have been forced to leave a job because of family hardship caused by the company and fought to get unemployment benefits and I won. Keep your chin up. The state will listen to reason.
Remember in the most states it is illegal to leave a young child at home alone and no company can force you to do something illegal.

Perhaps you are not aware but just about every non-bargained employee is called a manager these days, SA's, engineers, support teams, and developers.
I appreciate the unions, have belonged to many unions most of my life including CWA. Managers are being forced to cross picket lines and we don't have strike protection. We will lose our jobs if we don't.
I don't like this anymore than you do.

It has been tried, I was part of that effort many years ago. We could not get enough to go with it because things were too good. In fact if I remember CWA was part of that but they did not represent themselves very well and that did not help. Perhaps if the union itself had been more supportive of the effort it would have been adopted back then.
BTW Manager at AT&T means just about every non-bargained employee. And all the folks including the employees that don't get deployed will be working 12 hour days.

Some you don't see. You will call us scabs but the fact of the matter is we are being forced to cross the picket lines.
We will be moved away from our families, forced to work 12 hour days 6 days a week, no overtime, and two meals a day or lose our jobs to support a company that does not care about our families, our homes, our lives. Some of us will have to quit because of what is required of us.
You honestly think we like it? We don't get the choice to bargain for healthcare, bonuses, or pay increases. We get what we are handed.

This is for Posted by J | April 2, 2009 - 9:54pm. The union doesn't feel out small bits if information, they have websites where the members read updates on how bargining is going. It fact, we're able to check websites for all the AT&T companies. The article about passed was brought to our attention by some very well informed members. Even managers at work thought an agreement had been reached. It was nothing more than a blanant attempt by the company to create confusion and to influence union members in their decision they're going to have to make in the near future. We understand the economy is bad, that there are millions of people out of work and would love to have our jobs. However, we are not talking about GM or Chrysler, we are talking about a vibable and very profitable company, one that during the fourth quarter last year when the economy was going down the toilet made $2.09 billion, yes that's BILLION! This company is using the economic crisis in an attempt to force a bad contract on the union. It's not the union feeding bits and pieces, that would be the company. If you were to talk to some of the managers down here they would tell you that the company doesn't tell them what's going on.

"Word has it, if there is a walk out, talks would cease for 60 days."

I've heard the same thing.

I'm not trying to be a "troll." I have a lot of sympathy for the union. I'm just telling it is like it is. AT&T has no intention of dying a slow, painful death like General Motors has. The days of cheap healthcare are over.