AT&T "Legacy T" Bargaining Report #36

Your Bargaining Committee has not met with the Company yet this week, but members are working hard on proposals on a National Transfer Plan, employment security, health care, improvements in Articles 45 and 46 and issues affecting Articles 35 and 36.

Yesterday, for the first time, elected bargainers and staff and VPs from every table were on a conference call together with the three top officers of the CWA (Larry Cohen, Annie Hill, and Jeff Rechenbach) to talk about strategy, key issues, and how we can better support each other.  We all recognize that there are proposals that will be the same from table to table, like the National Transfer Plan, but there are many, like health care, which might have different solutions from table to table.

This call is just one of  the unique ways we have tried to build unity this bargaining – the joint web site and coordinated mobilization activities, the joint rally at the shareholders meeting, and the e-meeting that took place with over 20,000 members.  There are daily calls with bargaining chairs and constant contact between the District and C&T VPs.  Our Legislative Department is working overtime, as are people in every area of the country, on getting legislators to voice their support for our bargaining.  CWA put in place an Internet media campaign that reaches every AT&T district and community.  About 90,000 signatures of support on a petition to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson call on the Company to reject corporate greed and bargain fair contracts.  These signatures of support came from viewers of Facebook, CNN.com, top national newspapers online, and many other Internet outlets. 

With all of this, AT&T is still dragging its feet and has not engaged in meaningful bargaining at our table.  When push comes to shove, the main thing that will move them is your continued activity and unity on the job.  We cannot let time work against us and slip into business as usual.  Keep checking the web site for ideas from around the country that you can use in your Local.