AT&T Legacy T - Bargaining Report # 19

In an earlier report we told you about the Company’s proposal to change the vacation language. Under their proposal, if you are laid off, resign, retire or are terminated (for anything other than misconduct) and you have not used all your vacation time you only get a portion of the "pay in lieu of vacation” depending on what month you leave the payroll.  So, for example,  if you are laid off in February and would have been entitled to 5 weeks vacation (200 hours), and haven’t used any yet, you only get 33 hours pay in lieu of vacation.  The only improvement in today’s proposal is that they will pay your beneficiaries your full year’s vacation IF YOU DIE!!  That was supposed to be an advance! 

Other Company proposals today also took baby steps.  They are willing to go back to 60 days to grieve an incident (from their first proposal of 45 days) but they still want to reduce the number of Union reps at the meeting. 

There most outrageous proposal today, and one they have made every bargaining since we first got the language, is to take away our Electronic Monitoring Letter, which has many protections against the misuse of Electronic Monitoring.  They want to replace it with three sentences that would give the Company free reign to listen in and discipline our members. 

There were several Union proposals today.  One was a proposal that would allow members within 5 years of retirement the right to transfer into available AT&T Mobility jobs (at their current pay and benefits) in order to be able to reach service pension eligibility.  Another Union proposal set a minimum payout for the Success Sharing Plan, since the current plan did not pay out at all last year, we believe due to management decisions that negatively affected the Stock price.  We also proposed to add AT&T Mobility to the National Transfer Plan, to give our members (in both the “core” and Mobility) access to each other’s job openings. 

The last two Union proposals concerned bringing some fairness into the treatment of workers in the Consumer Organization and in “Leverage Titles”.  The first dealt with Leverage Titles, dealing with quota relief, discipline and the constant changing or incentive pay plans.  The second proposal would institute oversight and bargaining for the Consumer Organization over such issues as incentive plans, promotional trials and the environment in our call centers.  A great deal of time was spent discussing the deplorable conditions our members face in these centers and the terrible stress they are put under every day to meet unreasonable standards. 

CWA Bargainer Rick Hunt presented a vivid picture of what it is like to work under the current conditions: 

“We have tried to tell you how severe working conditions are and have been in the centers for a long time but it seems our complaints are falling on deaf ears.  Even after, not one but, two suicides in the same center, one would have thought that AT&T would finally listen to what we had to say.

"… Imagine month over month working hard to meet your numbers and not making them but then watching the expectations for the next month be raised even higher.  Does this make sense? 

"…Managers walking up behind you and demanding you 'get off that call' even when you aren’t done resolving the customers concern.  At this point, our members are basically being told we don’t care about providing any service; if you can’t sell, get rid of that call!“  

We let the Company know that every one of us is concerned when a portion of the workforce is treated so badly.  Whether we work in that environment or not, fighting for justice and equity on the job is part of Fighting for the American Dream.