AT&T "Legacy T" Bargaining Report #29

Bargaining today was more of the same. We fought over the elimination of some key provisions of letter (ccc), the Employment Security letter. Not only are they trying to eliminate the watermark for Article 43, but also the language that forces the company to fill full time contractors' jobs with full-time, regular employees. That language got us over 100 full-time jobs under the 2005 Contract even though the Company did not live up to its full commitment. Now the Company is saying they cannot commit to either filling their obligations under the current language and don't even want to attempt to try in the future.

Our next confrontation at the table concerned the "leveraged titles" the Company has proposed for Articles 35 and 36 in Consumer, Business Credit and Collections. These titles are a diabolical plan by the company to have these titles paid only 60% of their regular wages. They then have to earn the rest back through commissioned sales or other criteria. They don't even get their full pay when they take their vacation time or EW Days or if they are on Union business. They just lose the money or have to make up for their losses some other week. They say the plan is only for new hires but there is nothing to stop the company from offering incentives for our people to leave and replacing them all with this new groups of titles.

The next fight was over their transfer plan. The Union proposed a plan that the CWA across the country agreed was a clearer and simpler plan. The company rejected it and proposed a version of their current plan. It seems like they believe that just because something comes from Legacy S it is automatically better than anything we could come up with. In fact, many aspects of their plan make no sense.

Tomorrow we will continue looking at their health care proposal. We hope you are continuing to put pressure on the company in the workplace.