AT&T "Legacy T" Bargaining Report #6

The Union rejected the Company’s “obnoxious and outrageous” Health Care cost shifting proposal today.

The Company continued its litany of retrogressive proposals.  As they continue to claim that all they are looking for is "consistency" across the contracts, they are only consistent in trying to get rid of language that is better for us.

For example, they want to completely do away with our Academic Awards program, which gives the children of 28 bargaining unit workers up to $6500 a year.  Instead we would get the AT&T Foundation Scholarships.  Not only is the amount less ($1500 a year for two-year colleges and $2500 a year for four-year colleges), but there are only 630 scholarships to cover 400,000 management and non-management employees.  Also, since that plan it is not bargained-for like ours, they can change it anytime they want.

They have another proposal that reduces our Tuition Assistance Plan.  It caps the Tuition Assistance for full time employees in an undergraduate degree program to $3500 a year with a lifetime cap of $20,000.  It's worse for part-timers.  It also gives the Company a lot more say in what programs they will approve and what they won't.

They also want to cut Alliance Funding in half next year.  They did not care that this is one of the most successful joint programs we have ever had and both our members and the Company benefit from it.  The Union rejected this one after some heated discussion.

Finally, they want to eliminate the "tieback" rule.  This is something that came out of an arbitration case and prevents the Company from playing around with what surplus universe you are in, which could potentially violate seniority during layoffs.

In terms of Union proposals, we requested an extension of the gradual return to work for those returning from Family Care Leave or Care of a Newborn/Newly adopted Child Leave from a maximum of 6 months to a maximum of 12.

We also made important proposals to strengthen the Seniority Article; also we strengthened the VTP language to make it more difficult for the Company to use VTP to diminish the workforce and replace us with contractors.

This will be the last report for this week.  Our next Bargaining Session will be on Monday, March 9.