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CWA Takes Message to AT&T Shareholders
CWA members raised their voices and their concerns about the future of AT&T at the company’s shareholder meeting in Cincinnati.
Ralph Maly, CWA vice president for communications and technologies, addressed shareholders, along with officers and members from more than 15 CWA locals and representatives from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
About 400 CWAers, including a contingent of IUE-CWA members, rallied outside before the meeting. Speakers included CWA District 4 Vice President Jeff Rechenbach; IUE-CWA District 7 Vice President Frank Hiland; Dan Radford, Cincinnati AFL-CIO; Maria Garcia, an AT&T Broadband worker and Keith Adams, president of CWA Local 4351.
The action was part of the nationwide mobilization that has been focusing attention on problems at AT&T.
At the meeting, Maly told shareholders and executives that the future of AT&T is in the hands of workers who take care of customers, install new service and make repairs, “not in grand schemes or strategies that never seem to pan out.”
“We have seen the grand plans come and go over the past 15 years,” Maly said, adding that when the company makes mistakes or misjudgments, it is workers, not executives, who pay the price and suffer the consequences. He cited the company’s multi-billion dollar investment in NCR, the company’s credit card operation and its purchase of Paradyne Manufacturing as examples of poor management decisions that in some cases cost workers their jobs.
If AT&T employees are skeptical about this latest “grand slam scheme,” it’s because “we have learned from our experiences,” he said.
“Labor-management cooperation is a two-way street, not a one-lane highway that only goes in management’s direction,” Maly reminded top executives.
Other CWAers who spoke at the meeting included Gary Allen, Local 1051; Charlie Murphy and Ken Bishop, 1058; Laura Unger, 1150; Cora Moore, 3250; Keith Adams, 4351; LaNell Piercy, 4552; Dan Danaher, 4998; Billie Gavin, 6151; Brian Fletcher, 6320; Amy Campbell, 7750, and Gerald Souder, CWA staff.
Ralph Maly, CWA vice president for communications and technologies, addressed shareholders, along with officers and members from more than 15 CWA locals and representatives from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
About 400 CWAers, including a contingent of IUE-CWA members, rallied outside before the meeting. Speakers included CWA District 4 Vice President Jeff Rechenbach; IUE-CWA District 7 Vice President Frank Hiland; Dan Radford, Cincinnati AFL-CIO; Maria Garcia, an AT&T Broadband worker and Keith Adams, president of CWA Local 4351.
The action was part of the nationwide mobilization that has been focusing attention on problems at AT&T.
At the meeting, Maly told shareholders and executives that the future of AT&T is in the hands of workers who take care of customers, install new service and make repairs, “not in grand schemes or strategies that never seem to pan out.”
“We have seen the grand plans come and go over the past 15 years,” Maly said, adding that when the company makes mistakes or misjudgments, it is workers, not executives, who pay the price and suffer the consequences. He cited the company’s multi-billion dollar investment in NCR, the company’s credit card operation and its purchase of Paradyne Manufacturing as examples of poor management decisions that in some cases cost workers their jobs.
If AT&T employees are skeptical about this latest “grand slam scheme,” it’s because “we have learned from our experiences,” he said.
“Labor-management cooperation is a two-way street, not a one-lane highway that only goes in management’s direction,” Maly reminded top executives.
Other CWAers who spoke at the meeting included Gary Allen, Local 1051; Charlie Murphy and Ken Bishop, 1058; Laura Unger, 1150; Cora Moore, 3250; Keith Adams, 4351; LaNell Piercy, 4552; Dan Danaher, 4998; Billie Gavin, 6151; Brian Fletcher, 6320; Amy Campbell, 7750, and Gerald Souder, CWA staff.