AT&T "Legacy T" Bargaining Report #15

Today's Bargaining Session was particularly interesting due to the terrific demonstration of support from Local 2252 (Virginia) and Locals from all around the country who came to Virginia for the demonstration.  For your Bargaining Team it was a great show of support and clearly sent a message to the Company that our Locals are behind our fight for a fair contract.  Now we need to see that energy repeated in every Local, in every worksite, from every member.  That's the only way we will succeed.

At the table there was movement by the Company away from a few of their retrogressive demands (like changing the Day after Thanksgiving from a fixed holiday to a floater and eliminating tie-back).  This might seem like advances, except they also rejected Union improvements in those Articles.  So here we are, three weeks into bargaining, and we are right back where we started with the original language.  They also rejected an important Union demand that would have prevented the abuse of VTP as a method to replace us with contractors.  There was some small positive movement on two ATS proposals.  The total amount of progress is really miniscule considering how close we are to expiration.  VP Maly continued to remind the Company that AT&T spent millions buying back executives' multi-million dollar, un-sellable homes so they could transfer from San Antonio to Dallas, but doesn't seem to want to spend a dime on the needs of the members.

The Union presented a number of proposals on pension improvements, city allowances, a new commuter benefit, an "escalation adjustment" (we used to call it COLA), the Academic Awards (which the Company wants to eliminate), and the 40-hour training requirement.  Finally, we submitted a proposal that would commit the Company and the Union to work together for real health care reform.  We made clear that if the Company is really interested in dealing with the problem of rising health care costs and not just in shifting the cost to us, this is the route they should be taking.

Subcommittees met after the full committee meeting was over.  Bargaining will resume tomorrow morning.