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CWA: AT&T's Management Policies Harm Workers, Investors and Customers
AT&T's short-sighted approach and mismanagement of its labor relations policies is the focus of solidarity events being held today, Tuesday, July 11, in communities across the country.
Members of the Communications Workers of America will be joining in rallies and informational picketlines today to spotlight AT&T's wrongheaded management policies and the harm this approach is doing to employees, customers and investors.
"AT&T management seems bent on destroying any goodwill with its workforce and is throwing away the opportunity to build the kind of positive working partnership that is necessary to succeed in today's highly competitive communications industry," said CWA President Morton Bahr. "Management is squandering the very resource- the skills, training and expertise of its employees, our members - that is most needed to bring about the success of AT&T's move into new technology," he said.
Bahr cited several examples of AT&T management's efforts to coerce workers during union organizing campaigns and in distributing anti-union and false information about CWA.
One charge that AT&T is refusing to bargain with CWA as called for under the May 1998 contract is pending a determination by the National Labor Relations Board. CWA has charged AT&T management with "delaying, frustrating and undermining" CWA's contractual right to call for a review of AT&T's compliance with organizing neutrality language. There are multiple unfair labor practice charges pending against AT&T, CWA noted.
The NLRB has already issued a complaint against AT&T's Broadband unit for threatening workers and interfering with their right to form a union at its Arlington, Tex., cable operation. Workers were told they would lose their jobs or benefits if the union was voted in; the company also spied on workers and made certain that workers knew that the company was watching them.
CWA also pointed out that, in addition to frustrating workers in their campaigns to organize, AT&T has been slashing good, quality jobs and jeopardizing service while blocking workers from moving into the new jobs being created by advances in technology, the jobs of the future.
Members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, who will be joining the solidarity demonstrations in a number of cities, are locked in a separate dispute with AT&T. The actors have been on strike against television and radio ad producers since May, but several companies, including AT&T, are trying to break the strike by using non-union actors.
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Members of the Communications Workers of America will be joining in rallies and informational picketlines today to spotlight AT&T's wrongheaded management policies and the harm this approach is doing to employees, customers and investors.
"AT&T management seems bent on destroying any goodwill with its workforce and is throwing away the opportunity to build the kind of positive working partnership that is necessary to succeed in today's highly competitive communications industry," said CWA President Morton Bahr. "Management is squandering the very resource- the skills, training and expertise of its employees, our members - that is most needed to bring about the success of AT&T's move into new technology," he said.
Bahr cited several examples of AT&T management's efforts to coerce workers during union organizing campaigns and in distributing anti-union and false information about CWA.
One charge that AT&T is refusing to bargain with CWA as called for under the May 1998 contract is pending a determination by the National Labor Relations Board. CWA has charged AT&T management with "delaying, frustrating and undermining" CWA's contractual right to call for a review of AT&T's compliance with organizing neutrality language. There are multiple unfair labor practice charges pending against AT&T, CWA noted.
The NLRB has already issued a complaint against AT&T's Broadband unit for threatening workers and interfering with their right to form a union at its Arlington, Tex., cable operation. Workers were told they would lose their jobs or benefits if the union was voted in; the company also spied on workers and made certain that workers knew that the company was watching them.
CWA also pointed out that, in addition to frustrating workers in their campaigns to organize, AT&T has been slashing good, quality jobs and jeopardizing service while blocking workers from moving into the new jobs being created by advances in technology, the jobs of the future.
Members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, who will be joining the solidarity demonstrations in a number of cities, are locked in a separate dispute with AT&T. The actors have been on strike against television and radio ad producers since May, but several companies, including AT&T, are trying to break the strike by using non-union actors.
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