Statement to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities
Hearing on the AT&T/SBC Merger
June 6, 2005
My name is Laura Unger. I am a resident of Montclair, NJ. I started working for AT&T in 1979 as a Communications Technician, and currently work in New York City. I am also President of Communications Workers of America, Local 1150. I have been President of Local 1150 since 1986. When I was elected my Local had 2,600 members; approximately 1,000 of them were in New Jersey. My New Jersey members were all well-paid, highly skilled Technicians. Local 1150 now has only 260 members spread over New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey. About half work in New Jersey.
AT&T used to be the largest private employer in New Jersey. At one time there were over 50,000 AT&T employees in this state. Everyone knew someone who worked for AT&T. Now, I am sorry to say, everyone knows someone who was laid off or retired from AT&T.
In addition to my laid-off and retired members, I have others who travel from South Jersey as far as White Plain every day, because the only way they could keep their jobs is to commute 3 ½ hours a day. I have a member who—just 3 months ago—was declared surplus in Dayton, New Jersey. It was his eighth move in AT&T in 19 years. To keep working, he took a job in Richmond, Virginia. Two weeks after he got there, he was declared surplus again and will be laid-off.
AT&T has closed building after building in New Jersey. In the beginning, work was moved to Atlanta or Denver. Now the work is either eliminated, sent to contractors, or in the case of some customer services work, shipped overseas. Since the announcement of the acquisition, the downsizing has actually escalated. We heard that tomorrow there will be a notification to management of a 25% cut in their ranks. Despite AT&T’s claims that employees are an important asset of the company, AT&T is shedding those assets prior to finalizing the acquisition. SBC will be getting a shell of what it bargained for. This should be stopped now.
I am here to say I support this merger. I support it because AT&T is too important to be trusted to AT&T. There have been nothing but bad business decisions, bad purchases, bad sales... one bad decision after another that have led to a loss of jobs and a loss of shareholder value. Of course, the industry has changed and presented difficult challenges, but AT&T’s management has not been up to that challenge. Maybe under the leadership of SBC we will have a future. Maybe as part of SBC, AT&T will create jobs instead of destroying them. Maybe our pensions and the livelihood of our retirees will be safer. Maybe, AT&T Labs will again be able to make the contributions to science and knowledge that once made us so proud.
SBC says they are buying AT&T to grow and offer new services. Clearly it makes sense to have AT&T be part of a company that can offer a myriad of options to its customers. If jobs are part of that equation, I say welcome. If SBC understands the importance of building a strong presence in the New York/New Jersey area instead of abandoning it, like AT&T has done, then our Union will do everything in its power to make this merger work. If SBC is buying AT&T to use us as spare parts and continue its destruction, then we will all have a fight on our hands. But the truth is, it’s hard to imagine things being much worse for employees and investors than they are under AT&T’s current leadership.
I urge you to approve this merger, with the proviso that the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities vigilantly monitors the performance of SBC in terms its impact on jobs, service quality, and prices. I wish I could trust AT&T with AT&T—but I can’t. Secure jobs, superb service, and groundbreaking research—we will have to entrust them to SBC, and this Board.
Laura Unger
President CWA Local 1150
Residence:
4 Lansing Place
Upper Montclair, NJ 07043
