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AT&T Shareholders Meeting

AT&T Shareholders Meeting
Ralph Maly, Jr. Vice President
CWA Communications & Technologies
April 28, 2006
San Antonio, Texas

Good Morning Mr. Chairman and fellow shareholders,

 

My name is Ralph Maly and I am the Vice President of the Communications & Technologies Office of CWA.  My office represents the members and employees from what was once the “Old AT&T.”

 

Over the years, I have attended a number of AT&T Shareholder meetings speaking on behalf of the membership.  Over those years I spoke about a number of issues including mismanagement of the business; the greed of the senior leadership; the numerous failed business plans; and the lack of integrity by the business units to adhere to the contract, only to have all our concerns fall on deaf ears year after year.

 

When SBC decided to purchase AT&T, the anticipation of our members was one of great relief.  With everything they read and were told, they believed they would become part of a new family and that things would change for the better.  They demonstrated that belief and support by ratifying the new collective bargaining agreement by the highest margin in the history of this contract.

 

Today, that feeling of relief has all but gone.  In the first months of the new AT&T we had over 600 members laid off and the business units continue their disregard of what we bargained.  In fact, as of today, the company has failed to live up to any part of the job security language that we bargained.  They failed to meet any of the dates they agreed to or its implementation as spelled out in the agreement.

 

I am here today to ask for your help in getting the old AT&T business units, to step up and adhere to what they bargained.  Our members want the new AT&T to succeed.  They have a vested interest in making that happen.  They want to be part of the future.

 

Together we can move forward to make the new AT&T the best in the business.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

#####

 

Laura Unger’s Statement to the AT&T Shareholders Meeting, April 28, 2006

 

Mr Whitacre,

 

I am an AT&T Communications Technician in NYC since 1979 and the President of CWA Local 1150 which represents employees in New York and New Jersey.

 

I have a question, and a statement, relative to Item 3. 

In the proxy statement it states that the proposed incentive plan is based on performance goals and among those goals, on the bottom of page 23 it lists, “employee satisfaction” and “employee retention.”

 

I come from the “old AT&T.”  I was happy to speak at Public Service Commission hearings in New York and New Jersey in support of the merger because I felt we had a more promising future as part of SBC than standing alone under the mismanaged AT&T.  While I did not expect change overnight, I did expect some positive change.  But, so far, I have seen none – layoffs continue to occur, the new contract continues to be violated, our work continues to be moved to management,  contractors and overseas.  If “employee satisfaction” is really considered even part of your performance goals, I would not give you passing grades.  If “employee retention” means anything but the top executives you wanted to keep from AT&T, you fail there also.

 

I work in New York City in an office that services just the kind of business customers that SBC said it wanted when it purchased AT&T --   Best Buy, Home Depot, Circuit City and other big retailers.  A dark cloud hangs over our office as we are faced with constant threats that our work is leaving New York City, from a building owned by AT&T to leased space outside the city.  It is disgraceful that a company like ours has so few employees in the financial capital of this country.  If this move takes place and a only handful of AT&T employees remain in New York City, we will have no choice but to bring that fact to the attention of a community already too quick to see Verizon as its only “hometown” phone company.  It was bad business when the old AT&T moved thousands of jobs out of NYC and it would be bad business for the new AT&T to continue to abandon NY.  

 

So -- with my members fearful of losing their jobs or being forced to move or seeing their skilled jobs go to managers and contractors, my question is --  How do you measure the “employee satisfaction” that is supposed to influence the incentive plan discussed in Item 3.