AT&T workers protest in Connecticut

You aren't very bright are you. Do you really think that kind of training qualifies you. "IDIOT UNION WORKERS?" I'm ashamed to say you're one of us.

I guess that's why you're a FORMER MANAGER, and weren't one of those pions that got cursed at 3 times a day by customers who were mad that their service wasn't fixed on time. As for me I was one of those pions and NEVER took all of my GIFTED 10 sick days in a year. Funny you mention a few people that might have taken advantage when most did not. Get on the phone and take call after call after call and then have you're supervisor tell you that you're not taking enough!! Please read the writing on the wall that wasn't the reason they closed Meriden. Have you not noticed they're closing all the departments in Connecticut one by one. There's a plan in place and it's already been decided long before Meriden closed. If you've been with the company that long you know it so RECAP THAT!!

As a former Manager of AT&T who was on the attendance committee I can say without a doubt that CWA was warned about employee attendance. CT has the highest absenteeism in all of the AT&T regions, thus costing more per employee than other regions; that's why the Meriden Call Center was closed and the work rerouted down south. I can't tell you how many times an employee would ask for the day after a holiday off and I would have to decline them due to scheduling (10% of the workforce is allowed off at one time). Those employees who were denied the day off after a holiday would simply call out sick. When confronted the Union would come in and flex their muscles indicating that the Union members are ENTITLED to 10 paid sick days per year. Let's recap: the average employee with 20 years of service makes $55,000+, has five paid weeks vacation, five pesonal days, numerous company-recognized PAID holiday and oh yes, their ENTITLED 10 sick days. Managers of AT&T have been paying towards their medical insurance for YEARS just like the rest of the country, and DO NOT DARE call out sick. How DARE AT&T ask the Union members to pay. Come on CWA - - - wake up you're not in Kansas anymore.

AT&T has not made arrangements for local state witholding income tax of those AT&T (CP09) employees who will be stepping in to work jobs of striking employees. Connecticut says on their web page anyone who works in CT MUST pay CT income tax. AT&T is hoping nobody would notice.

Unions are needed. I'm not a union member, but without check and balances in place, the company will RULE!. Then it will be up to the State/Federal level to assist employees. Yea right.

For those that are non-union types, be thankful we have someone out there fighting to keep some kind of standard.

Do I feel unions get far to much. Yes. There is always a balance needed, however in the world of humans, good luck in finding it.

I know someone who was forced to retire a few years ago and was definitely not a dinosaur. he was cut on what he should have received and today struggles to make ends meet. just because a person is 55 and up doesn't mean they do not need to work. I am 59 and got started late in my job, I need to work to support myself. I have no one to support me. So don't go throwing stones at the 55+ workers unless you know the whole story!

Don't need to take any deep breaths because I'm not going out of town...not going anywhere but to my Job that I will be getting PAID to do ! ...I'm a NON UNION OCCUPATIONAL WORKER that's going to walk right by you to go to work ! to get my PAY ! to pay my bills...yup, SCAB-er-ROONIE I AM!! and lovin every minute of it ! and will probalby be working some OT to cover your job...fine with me !! CHA CHING, CHA CHING !!

Uhhh. No. They get strike pay LIKE ANYONE ELSE. Unlike managers whose **** dont stink our union leaders act and treat us as equals. You should try it.

So get a union for management. I've seen the training that managers do for call center jobs. It's dumbed down and simplified so much to make your lives easier. IT IS NOT WHAT WE DO. There is a big difference between the real job done and what management has to "SUFFER" through. Unions are needed to protect the "bottom of the barrel" workers.

Wow...from these comments it looks like this company has some issues. Thank God I don't have service with them, and I'm putting my stock in Verizon they didn't have any problems when their contract was up. One more thing...where do I sign up for this union? Who gets 100% of their benefits paid for...that's hilarious. If you get fired good luck trying to find another gig like that.

God I hope the union basher's have to use msoc while were on strike!!!!!

Wow!! Nice comment, idiot. Obviously, their will be a large amount of morons that have nothing intelligent to say when they get their chance to enter a medium. This is why he has only one line. Do yourself a favor and go do what your “Mom” is asking you to do. Go take a warm bath with tiny bubbles in it and go to bed, boy. For the rest of the intelligent people, ATT has made a great profit last year of 12.9 billion dollars. The amount that they pay in health insurance is pocket change. They will double that profit this year with or without the recession. The company will make money while quantities of people turn on each other because of negotiations. Greed, greed, greed. Can anyone just sit there and coordinate your job as well as you do? How many years did it take to get your job to perfection? No one likes to hear about strikes or negotiations but this is the time you must unite with one another to get not more, but what you have earned over the years. Many of you have continued with your education and graduated in several different colleges. Was this not a task above the task you do daily at ATT? BS, Masters?? You are educated people that can work somewhere else but you choose to be at ATT. Why? The pay, the years spent at the same place and/or sometimes it’s worth putting up with the customers in order to make this living that you have trained for. Is it hard? Hell yeah! Can Joe Bag of Donuts do what you do? Hell no! The people that say that they hope that there is no strike because they say they think it’s stupid or that there is several people waiting to take those jobs are uneducated and have never finished any type of College in their life. I’m willing to bet on it. They are complacent and will accept a job that cleans the toilet seat of the bosses if it were to pay 14 dollars an hour. People who are educated will tell you to shove it, because they are professionals and will gladly wait to see which rat will come do it for a dime less of their dignity. My advice to all of you is to stick together. Strike together and receive your benefits together. The big boss man is going to make his big dollars regardless if you are employed at ATT or at Burger King. Trust me; I am a Local 745 for UPS. We had strikes and we got compensated very admirably. Don’t listen to these idiots that have been there for a short time. Like this boy above me.

HA.. the person 3 levels above me is fearing for his job right now! Another one bites the dust!!

You must DEFINITELY be an AT&T manager with language like that "pick it line"! NICE!! There's no pool table in our union hall... and guess what... the union reps will get the same paycheck that I get when we are out on the "pick it line" (wanna keep it simple so you can understand)... you sound angry!! Take a deep breath and prepare to leave your family for awhile... to do some real work when we go on strike!! ;)

Your salary really isn't all that great when you divide it by ALL the LONG hard hours you put in! As far as your list of 17 items... it's almost like the saying of "how many morons does it take to screw in a light bulb"? Management is way over staffed. I think that is proven by the fact that AT&T can take managers from their positions and train them to do other work and send them off in the event of a strike! IF they were so important and needed where they are in items 1-17, why do you have to be trained to do what the union workers do, to keep the company going in the event of a strike!?!?! Hmmm....

AT&T has been taking care of their people because CWA has been forcing them to do so. Ask any manager of AT&T these days, how they like their benefits package! I haven't heard one manager here have anything GOOD to say about what the company has done to them. They just keep puckering up and kissing the next one, so they can stay employed! And it's NOT really the Legacy T, it's the new AT&T, once SBC was added to the picture... morale rolled downhill, just like crap!

hello everyone i am one of the 12000 people that lost thier job due to at&t with the blessing of the cwa who sat happily by while they hired two week wounders to replace my 8 yrs of dedicated service and called them prem techs at $10.00 hr. how quickly the company forgets all the 20 below zero days i was up pole freezing my tail off and fingers so numb i couldnt feel them just to make sure thier cust had dial tone. for all this dedication i lose my families income may lose my home and every thing i work so hard for. thank you at&t for returning the dedication and loyalty i showed you with a trip to the unemployment line :(

I would say that someone with 30 years (retirement eligibility) is close to being a dinosaur !! Part of AT&T's problem is they have SOOOO many employees with 30+ years that refuse to leave unless they're offered a HUGE package! They've had voluntary leave packages and these people STILL won't go ! then what happens? the low man gets booted out ! and AT&T is left with a work force of people that are 55 Years and up, just sitting around, falling asleep at their desks, too tired to do anything, feeling like they're 'owed' something, waiting for that magic package that's NEVER going to come their way!!

You all need to realize that these are real people with real families. When you work for AT&T, the company owns you. I can't tell you how many times our family plans have been destroyed because of company demands and rediculous scheduling. Or, how exhausted my husband comes home after dealing with the stress of meeting all the company expectations and monitoring, which change almost monthly lately. He has put 30 hard years into this company, and so has his family. Our family has given up a lot to provide GREAT communication to the U S people. There are no real breaks unless you are on vacation. And, getting a decent vacation time is hard to come by until you are a dinosaur! I get both sides. As in all compnaies - I'm a teacher - there is great waste in management. Most are good, but the ones that are bad are really bad. We just want a fair shake, and a fair retirement after all these years. Something has to give. Unfortunately I think it will be those of us that have already given so much, and lost so much recently. We'd love to retire, but all we have is company stock (required retirement investment)...and an earned retirement that we cannot draw from yet. Not looking good from this vantage point!

I keep hearing how Lazy Management is from you Union people. Yes you install and service our customers and services and we should all be grateful to you for a great job. However, you seem to forget what Management does:

1.) Who does the market research that defines opportunities for new services to our customers ?

2.) Who gathers all this data to fund these projects ?

3.) Who manages the projects for new services ?

4.) Who markets and sells these services to our customers ?

5.) Who manages the financials and profits for the services that we offer ?

6.) Who contracts for these services ?

7.) Who is responsible for the profitability of these services ?

8.) Who is responsible for the ongoing success of these services

9.) Who funds the maintenance of these services ?

10) Who hires the people who maintain and install these services ?

11.) Who funds the tools, vans, trucks, maintenance and fuel contracts etc. ?

12.) Who actually negotiates with our vendors to ensure we have everything we need when we need it ?

13.) Who develops disaster recovery plans, and emergency plans to ensure our clients services do not fail ?

14.) Who does all of the above globally across every continent in the world ? (AT&T is not just a US Company, we are just as big throughout the world).

15.) Who works with the government to ensure that laws and other regulations do not inhibit our ability to remain strong and allow us to remain competitive in the market place ?

16.) Who gathers our financial information and shares it with our stock holders ?

17.) Who sets up our internal processes and performs audits to ensure we are in compliance with the various laws throughout the world ?

The list goes on and on and on and on and on. You say Management is lazy, and maybe there are few of us who are. However, you have to realize that your world is a very small part of what we do. You are a vital part of the organization, and therefore you should not get anything less than what we receive for benefits, but you should get nothing more than what we receive.

As far as all of you whining that we outsource; I guess a lot of you SBCers forgot when you bought AT&T you bought a GLOBAL COMPANY. We have a presence in every continent and a very large workforce in various countries through the world. We are almost 400,000 Employees. There are people who live outside the US as well.

As as Executives are concerned, you have no clue what Executives do, as well as, what Management really does. You just think we have these cushy jobs where we drink latte's all day long. I can tell you, if you think forced over time is bad, try working as many hours as I do as a salaried worker. I deal globally. Yep, I made the choice to take the position I have. I chose this career, and I put up with a lot of crap, but I like my job. I wish the benefits were the way they use to be before AT&T was purchased, but no company out there is providing anything better from a Health Care Prospective, with a great salary and other benefits.

Let me just say sit in the seat of an operator for 1 day handle the rudeness expressed by some customers, the time restraints the company puts on you and the raw deal of lousy schedules and see how you feel. Any 411 operator or tech will tell you that they are your heart and your money for the company, they deal with the customer daily sometimes 600 times a day at $1.79 for 1 operator, then 200 operators in just 1 office and tell us they are not making money for the company. No one likes the idea to strike but operators and techs should get their just due---Executives are thankful for the money that these employees put in their pockets. What ever happened to going "Above and Beyond" with providing excellent customer service has AT&T put that aside with their rushed 26 seconds on and off a call--who loses--- the CUSTOMER does and they are the ones paying the salaries. No customers ,no salaries then where would they all be.

Another Moron manager at AT&T talks befor ethey have the facts.

I'm glad I pay it too. If for nothing else but to put you in your place. How come none of you guys can understand what NET profit is? Net profit is after expenses including R & D...

which is coming out of every memebers paycheck! iSn't that grand ? don't all of you union members feel special ? you're union reps sit at the halls, playing pool, etc...on YOUR DIME !! and they'll also get a FULL paycheck while you're standing on the pick it line, getting NADA ! they're sooooo glad you pay that dues !!!

uh, you get 'paid' for the 'occurence' you call'd in sick for !! moron! and you happened to leave a minor point out of this story...if you call in sick on monday, that's one occurence...if you call in sick mon, tues, wed, that's STILL ONE occurence !! after 6 days (if you call in sick, mon-mon) that's still one occurence !!! now, if you call in mon (one occurence) come to work on tues, call in sick on wednesday , that'll be Two occurences...but who does that ? Don't tell me about sick days...there's a person in our office that calls in sick atleast 5 times a month !! YES< you heard me !! when the mgmt tries to do something, the big ol UNION steps in and protects him !! jee, that's cool , isn't it ? why do think the company is trying to stop that ??? they're paying more people to call in 'so called sick' (they're lazy) and they're finally putting a stop to it !!! what a waste of an employee!!!

and yeah, the company makes TONS of money, but they're also putting it into new equipment, new cell phones, etc...you think they just pocket it? and they're also paying people TONS of money for being out on (so called) dissabilty ! and 'having the flu', etc...what a joke !

It's all about to stop thought !!! YEAH!!!

Another AT&T manager with alot of time on their hands..GET back to work MANAGER...

I for one can remember the strike of 1968 does anyone else remember? I will support a STRIKE when all the saps that call themselfs managers try to do my job."Good luck with that". We have what we have because we can do the JOB. Get used to it managers you will never be anything more than a puppet with no rights on the job ever.Maybe the managers should join a UNION then you will maybe just maybe you will get a raise..NOT!!

The proud union members are here, we just choose not to engage in such undereducated bs put out by these so called mgrs. We all know having the title of mgr at at&t doesnt mean jack. I just can't believe that the mgrs don't know they are next when the contract is settled.

To the person posting that At&t gives their workers sick pay. I dont know what state you are posting from but I have worked for At&T for 10 yrs and In my office we get no sick pay its an occurance which means it could affect whether or not you have a job if you happen to get sick for more than 8 days a year. So a week of the flu or other illness could cost you your job. Also At&T is not hurting for money even in this economy they made a 12.9 billion dollar profit last yr in this bad economy

When the union reps are at the union hall they are not being paid by the company they are being paid by the union hall

Hi Jon the Union Guy- Thanks for joining the fight. I've been the lone pro-union voice on this thread for awhile. I sampled some of the phrases used by the union bashers, and found the same stuff on other sites. These are not real people. They are scripted responders who fling this stuff all over the web. They are probably paid by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. So, don't lose heart; they are just robots.

Wow. The ignorance abounds in these replies. For those of you who don't think we need unions and the free markets will police itself I say "what a bunch of dumb asses you are"-- "Read your history people". Unions gave you what you have. Yeah that's right holidays 40 hour work weeks, safe working conditions, vacation pay and many other benefits. And if you don't think so then keep on thinking your 60-70 hour work week for salary pay is fair.Praying that someone from above who invested not one single dime of thier own money in the multinational corporation you work for will give you a bonus. I have never in my life seen so much ignorance. Educate yourself cause everyone of us blue jean wearing 5 day a week working saps are going to get our asses kicked every time the union jobs take a hit. Don't you get it Union wages set the standard. Those of you who think differently better start praying because the Wallstreet debacle was just the beginning of what free markets will do for anyone who isn't part of the "I got mine club" I could go on and on but you peolple just aren't worth it.

Quick question for the union bashers-Do you hate and envy everyone that has a better job than you? I understand from your rantings that those are the people responsible for the poor quality of your work life. Believe me I get it. Honest I'm on your side in this. Those darn folks with good benefits and wages really are to blame for your miserable life. It's a conspiracy designed to hold you down, man.

while i sit and watch the occupational workers gather round every morning to discuss american idol, i often think to myself " hmmmm, do they have no work to do? or do they just feel that they have the right to make $25.00 an hour and have their morning chat session"...then they prance off for a 2 hour 'shopping spree' at lunch time. There's about &75.00 a day coming out of AT&T's pocket, times 6 people ? that's $450.00 per day, $2250.00 per week...shot down the drain. And these 6 are also the same 'union' workers discussing what they're going to do while they're on strike ! Now, what again are they going to strike for ? Throw in a couple of the smokers in the office, who are outside for 15 min , every 2 hours or so ? then taking their lunch HOUR (or more)....these same workers get 5 weeks PAID vacation and unlimited sick time...
so, answer me this, how is AT&T treating you so terribly ? THIS is what the union is for...to keep up this trend of being paid for nothing....guess they feel they deserve it ?
personally, I hope you all go out on strike, for a long, long time! Meanwhile, I'll be making tons of overtime, have a secure job and training new people who actually want to work for a living ! Happy Trails to you all !!

another 'funny' thing is, all of you union people pay weekly dues and have for years and years, BUT, if you are to walk off your job and strike (as suggested by your union officials) are they going to pay you while you're not getting a paycheck from AT&T ? NOPE ! You might be lucky to get $200.00 a week AFTER two weeks on the picket line, MAYBE! ALL of that union dues you've put into the union and they can't help support you for THIER decision to walk off the job ? Now, the union offials will be getting their normal pay while they're sitting in the union hall, complaining about AT&T mistreating them, but you won't get dittly ! what exactly are you paying dues for ? To keep the union officials comfortable!! and they say that the CEO's of these big companies are greedy ?

"All of you union whiners answer me this one simple question. If you hate what AT&T is doing to your pay, benefits and job security then WHY DON'T YOU GO GET A JOB AT ANOTHER COMPANY?"
Here's the answer- Because I, and 120,000 other CWA members can correct workplace inequities by bargaining an "Employment Contract". That's an agreement between worker and employer. If you need help understanding the concept, ask the person 3 levels above you on the org. chart. He's got one.

"If it were not for Unions you would not have a 40 hr workweek. Paid vacations, benefits, paid overtime and ect... You would be working for 10 to 12 hrs a day for very little money and nothing else."

This shows how out of touch the union worker is with the competitive free market. They think they should only work 40 hours a week and don't realize that many of us are working much more to keep our jobs and make ends meet. And they think if you work one minute more it should be overtime (regardless of their hour's worth of smoke breaks during the day). And they have obviously never worked more than 8 hours a day. And you wonder why the rest of the world thinks we are lazy, and why jobs are being shipped over seas. Thank the union slugs.

" "Do any of you non-union people realize what these low-skill people get? They get gauranteed pay raises. If I do a poor job I get no pay raise. My raise along with everyone elses was frozen this year. $0. They get very cheap medical, dental and vision. Mine has gone up each year. They get 401k matching contributions. They get a ridiculaous amount of vacation time. I get 4 company paid holidays. They work 40 hours per week and get time and a half or double time for anything beyond that. I work 60-70 hours a week for base pay. No overtime allowed." "---But you have the privilege of being a white-collar worker. Your mom must be proud.

I am in an AT&T management employee. We have all had to train for alternate jobs that will be left open by the idiot union workers when they go on strike. My job is working in a call center taking DSL complaints and dispatching out techs. You dummys really need a union for your phone operator job? LOL. These union folks get 3 months of on the job training for this position. We took 25 hours of online training and had 1 day of hands on systems training and are ready to go. Some of these union folks have decent skills. Most of them don't. That is why management can train for their jobs in a fraction of the time. Do any of you non-union people realize what these low-skill people get? They get gauranteed pay raises. If I do a poor job I get no pay raise. My raise along with everyone elses was frozen this year. $0. They get very cheap medical, dental and vision. Mine has gone up each year. They get 401k matching contributions. They get a ridiculaous amount of vacation time. I get 4 company paid holidays. They work 40 hours per week and get time and a half or double time for anything beyond that. I work 60-70 hours a week for base pay. No overtime allowed. So they are slowly bankrupting the wireline side of the company and now these jerks want gaurantees of jobs in other areas once the wireline layoffs that they will cause inevitably happen. And all of this in the worst economy in almost a century. Way to go unions. You are going to put yourself out of business. And in this economy most of you won't find jobs for 6-12 months, if at all. Then you will find a different way to leech off the rest of the world when you join the welfare masses. And while you are out of work, ride your bike past the million dollar houses of the union bosses who are living high off the union dues you idiots have been paying them for decades. And years from now when you are sitting in your one room government subsidized apartment smoking cigarettes in bed and wondering how you are going to get your rotting teeth fixed, remember how good you had it at AT&T. And remember how a bunch of mafia union bosses ruined your life by telling you it would be a great idea to walk off your job during a world-wide economic crisis. Yep, you union folks are brilliant.

All of you union whiners answer me this one simple question. If you hate what AT&T is doing to your pay, benefits and job security then WHY DON'T YOU GO GET A JOB AT ANOTHER COMPANY? The answer is because there is NOWHERE else you can go with your skillset and get better than what you are getting now at AT&T. Why? Because the bloated unions have already jacked up your pay and benefits well beyond what your skillset demands in the market. And you know you can't do better anywhere else. So you stay at AT&T and hold the company hostage instead of simply finding another job. It is that simple. If you think AT&T is so bad, why would you stay and work for them? So answer me that one simple question without clouding the issue with what you think you are entitled to. You can't do it.

Don't waste your breath educating this moron about the American workforce. He's probably in a hut in Malaysia getting $0.10 per internet response from AT&T. It's not a real person, just a robo-responder made of flesh and blood.

Verizon employs 65,000 workers represented by CWA and IBEW. That's why they have good wages and benefits.

maybe years ago (and I'm talking before the 1980's) the unions had their place. not anymore. corporations like AT&T are not going to pay their people squat ! Look at companies like ADP and Verizon...no unions, and their employees are paid very well with all the benefits...Corporations will pay to keep GOOD workers...the only thing the union does is keep these corps. from firing the useless (makes sense, right ?) When this contract is all said and done, AT&T will come out on top ! the union can threaten strike, can even walk out, but chances of them coming back with the baraining chips they're throwing out is about 1%....and if they stay out too long, they'll lose their job all together. With today's economy and unemployment records, this is no time to try and get more than your worth. It just ain't gonna happen! AT&T is MUCH stronger than any union and there's too many people out there that need a job and will take one at any cost!

This Union bashing is stupid! If it were not for Unions you would not have a 40 hr workweek. Paid vacations, benefits, paid overtime and ect. These things were fought for by Union mebers of long ago. I know, I was one. You would be working for 10 to 12 hrs a day for very little money and nothing else. Th company would be stuffing it's pockets with the money that is saved.

well, then , go find another job. Another big, huge corporation who will pay you better, pay ALL of your benefits, give you 5 weeks vacation, ALL of the sick time you claim to need. If you're embarassed to work for such a greedy company, I'm sure they'll accept your resignation...tomorrow!

"AT&T will take care of their people" For the same reason they brought back 5000 jobs to the U.S.? Because they were compelled to by outside forces. The return of the Indian jobs was a condition of the last merger. I used to be proud to tell people that I worked for the phone company. I'm now ashamed to admit that I'm associated with just one more company run by business school grads with no product knowledge. Exclamation points and CAPITAL letters can't substitute for a cogent argument. The comic book world you're portraying is not the truth. The union is not asking for more benefits. The company came to the table telling the union that they were slashing benefits. When they told me about how they were cutting my benefits; stopping pension contributions; and firing 15% of my work group, I wished that I had a union to stand up for me. Forget not that all this is happening when AT&T is making record profits. Bye for now. I'll probably hear from you tomorrow when you're back at your desk patrolling the web spewing the company line.

and you don't think that AT&T will give these greedy people a 'decent' middle class life ? oh come on, who are you kidding ? AT&T will take care of their people. they've over paid and over compensated these workers for years and now, they are keeping up with the economy. If AT&T workers believe they can make more money somewhere else, get more 'sick pay', more dissability time, and more benefits somewhere else, then GO ON ! GOOD LUCK TRYING! They had better be happy with what AT&T hands out to them...union or no union, AT&T pays over and above other companies! they're tired of being taken advantage of by a greedy union and they're ready to put a stop to it !

As an AT&T manager I'll be walking through a picket line walked by lifelong friends. These are people that I started working with 30 years ago; socialize with; go to church with. My daughter is married to a union steward. Do those posting mindless claptrap here believe that those that are part of the bargaining unit want any more than a decent middle class life, in the face of corporate greed? Who does the company need more-the guy that sets the poles or the guy that counts the poles?

hey, little girl....the union members are a bunch of ignorant, selfish people who are going to possibly call a strike and expect the memebers to sit out without pay !! then their 'little girls' are going to be without a lot of toys if that happens and ya know what ? the union officials won't care !!! you're Daddy is smart being a manager for AT&T. They'll take care of him and his little girl!

My Dad has to go out west if this strike happens. Please blame the corporation, not the Union members who want a decent living to provide for their little girls,too.