AT&T "Legacy T" Bargaining Report #9

The Union and the Company are still moving in opposite directions.  The Union passed several proposals to move titles in Articles 45, 46, and one in 36 INTO Article 41 to give those workers some of the better language in that Article.  We also passed several improvements in the language for Article 37.  The Company, on the other hand, keeps passing proposals to strip everyone of the better language (see the last two days’ bargaining reports).  This is a perfect example of why we need Unions.  Management’s idea of fairness is to bring everyone down to the worst conditions under the Contract, while the Union’s idea of fairness is to move everyone up.  If we let management have a free hand, everyone will be worse off.

Today they passed proposals on Article 43.  We're sure everyone in that title knows that we gave up many things to get new work and new workers covered under the Agreement.  One of things we insisted on was a watermark of employment, below which the Company could not go.  Their proposal today was to eliminate it.  We had originally agreed to allow a "variable workforce", (contractors to deal with "peaks" in the work,) but the Company was required to review those numbers with us quarterly.  We have, over the last few years, replaced a lot of contractors with full-time jobs.  Now the Company wants to take away our right to review contractor numbers.  In addition, they want to take away much of the "grandfathered" language for the NTS-Gs.

In a press statement today: AT&T Inc. said Tuesday it will add nearly 3,000 jobs this year and invest $17 billion to $18 billion to drive growth by enhancing wireless and broadband networks to provide more coverage.  AT&T said it will add jobs in 2009 to meet continued demand for broadband services, but will still cut jobs in other areas, as previously announced, because of a tough economy and a shift toward wireless and broadband.

Based on the demands AT&T is putting across the table, both in terms of working conditions and benefits, we can probably expect that, as they get rid of us, they will try to bring this new work in under vastly different conditions.

Remember – tomorrow is Health Care Action Day.  Let the Company know that cutting our benefits is a SICK idea, and if they were really interested in fixing the problem, they would join us in supporting National Health Care reform now.