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"Housewife" Takes on Commission
The morning of Jan. 13, Heidi Neal stood in her California kitchen making peanut butter sandwiches with one hand while feeding letters into her fax machine with the other - letters to the Federal Communications Commission she hoped would help save her husband's job, and the jobs of thousands of other telecom workers.
Less than two weeks later, the mother of four who likes to say she's "just a housewife" found herself in FCC headquarters in Washington, D.C., meeting with two of the five FCC commissioners and the staffs for two others.
Since then, Neal - whose husband, Kevin, is a Los Angeles-area SBC technician and member of CWA Local 9503 - has been written up in national and local publications and appeared on TV while maintaining her one-woman website, www.momsavesjobs.org.
"It's actually pretty scary," Neal says of her sudden celebrity as she fights for a policy change involving the country's biggest telephone companies. "I didn't start this to become famous. I started this because I remembered how helpless I felt when my 3-year-old was born with disabilities. I decided then I was never going to feel helpless again, so when Kevin came home and told me he was going to lose his job, I immediately went to the SBC website to find out why."
Through ample reading, research and questioning of people, with a lot of help from Local 9503 Steward Walter Bates, Neal learned the arcane ins and outs of rules involving access lines for long distance carriers.
She learned how a policy set by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires local carriers such as SBC to lease their lines at deeply discounted rates to competing companies, most notably AT&T, Sprint and WorldCom. Yet the local companies are still responsible for repairs, maintenance and upgrades. The issue has been at the heart of the cryptic TV ad battle between SBC and AT&T for months.
SBC says the leasing policy has cut deeply into profits, forcing the layoffs of thousands of workers. CWA President Morton Bahr said there's no question that the unfair rule is hurting workers and stifling new construction and innovation in the industry. "A new policy is desperately needed to encourage investment in telecommunications and create jobs," Bahr said. "There is nothing 'competitive' about a policy that allows a telecom giant like AT&T to pay drastically reduced rates for access to phone lines that other companies installed and maintain."
Neal's husband is now a "surplus" employee reassigned to a position that pays far less than his technician's salary. Because of a strong CWA contract, however, he will receive his higher salary for a full year.
"This is affecting so many people," Neal said. "Workers are worried about their jobs. Retirees are worried about their pensions losing value. Health care costs for employees are going up. It used to cost $5 for an office visit to a doctor. Now it's $20."
Neal never imagined she'd know so much about what the industry calls UNE-P or "unbundled network element platform" lines. After reading documents over and over to understand the language, she began calling the FCC in the fall. She took money she and her husband would have spent for an anniversary dinner to launch her website. In addition to hard information, it is sprinkled with inspirational quotes that say a lot about Neal herself, such as Gandhi's, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
With the website up and running, Neal depleted her family's Christmas fund to pay for printing, postage and phone calls to advance the campaign. When her mother asked what she wanted for Christmas she requested the fax machine to be able to do more work from home.
Support from CWA Retirees
Shortly thereafter, Bill Jones, head of the Association of BellTel Retirees Inc., urged her to come to Washington to meet with the FCC face to face. "Her story was compelling," he said. "Here is a mom who educated herself on a complex issue and decided to do something about it."
With donations from the retirees and others - her husband passed the hat at work and an SBC employee donated his frequent flyer miles - Neal flew to Washington on a shoestring budget for three days in January. Her husband helped by taking vacation time to watch their four young daughters.
She'd set up meetings in advance with the
commissioners, but didn't know what to expect. "I asked for five minutes and ended up getting half-hour meetings," she said, describing a warm reception by the officials and their staffs.
In spite of an FCC vote in February that didn't turn out the way Neal and CWA had hoped, Neal's campaign continues (see related story, CWA: FCC Misses Opportunity to Boost Telecom Jobs). The FCC opted to put the burden on individual states to make their own decision about access line leasing, meaning instead of one bureaucracy there's now 50 to battle.
Neal plans to start with California. "The fight's not over," she said.
Less than two weeks later, the mother of four who likes to say she's "just a housewife" found herself in FCC headquarters in Washington, D.C., meeting with two of the five FCC commissioners and the staffs for two others.
Since then, Neal - whose husband, Kevin, is a Los Angeles-area SBC technician and member of CWA Local 9503 - has been written up in national and local publications and appeared on TV while maintaining her one-woman website, www.momsavesjobs.org.
"It's actually pretty scary," Neal says of her sudden celebrity as she fights for a policy change involving the country's biggest telephone companies. "I didn't start this to become famous. I started this because I remembered how helpless I felt when my 3-year-old was born with disabilities. I decided then I was never going to feel helpless again, so when Kevin came home and told me he was going to lose his job, I immediately went to the SBC website to find out why."
Through ample reading, research and questioning of people, with a lot of help from Local 9503 Steward Walter Bates, Neal learned the arcane ins and outs of rules involving access lines for long distance carriers.
She learned how a policy set by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires local carriers such as SBC to lease their lines at deeply discounted rates to competing companies, most notably AT&T, Sprint and WorldCom. Yet the local companies are still responsible for repairs, maintenance and upgrades. The issue has been at the heart of the cryptic TV ad battle between SBC and AT&T for months.
SBC says the leasing policy has cut deeply into profits, forcing the layoffs of thousands of workers. CWA President Morton Bahr said there's no question that the unfair rule is hurting workers and stifling new construction and innovation in the industry. "A new policy is desperately needed to encourage investment in telecommunications and create jobs," Bahr said. "There is nothing 'competitive' about a policy that allows a telecom giant like AT&T to pay drastically reduced rates for access to phone lines that other companies installed and maintain."
Neal's husband is now a "surplus" employee reassigned to a position that pays far less than his technician's salary. Because of a strong CWA contract, however, he will receive his higher salary for a full year.
"This is affecting so many people," Neal said. "Workers are worried about their jobs. Retirees are worried about their pensions losing value. Health care costs for employees are going up. It used to cost $5 for an office visit to a doctor. Now it's $20."
Neal never imagined she'd know so much about what the industry calls UNE-P or "unbundled network element platform" lines. After reading documents over and over to understand the language, she began calling the FCC in the fall. She took money she and her husband would have spent for an anniversary dinner to launch her website. In addition to hard information, it is sprinkled with inspirational quotes that say a lot about Neal herself, such as Gandhi's, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
With the website up and running, Neal depleted her family's Christmas fund to pay for printing, postage and phone calls to advance the campaign. When her mother asked what she wanted for Christmas she requested the fax machine to be able to do more work from home.
Support from CWA Retirees
Shortly thereafter, Bill Jones, head of the Association of BellTel Retirees Inc., urged her to come to Washington to meet with the FCC face to face. "Her story was compelling," he said. "Here is a mom who educated herself on a complex issue and decided to do something about it."
With donations from the retirees and others - her husband passed the hat at work and an SBC employee donated his frequent flyer miles - Neal flew to Washington on a shoestring budget for three days in January. Her husband helped by taking vacation time to watch their four young daughters.
She'd set up meetings in advance with the
commissioners, but didn't know what to expect. "I asked for five minutes and ended up getting half-hour meetings," she said, describing a warm reception by the officials and their staffs.
In spite of an FCC vote in February that didn't turn out the way Neal and CWA had hoped, Neal's campaign continues (see related story, CWA: FCC Misses Opportunity to Boost Telecom Jobs). The FCC opted to put the burden on individual states to make their own decision about access line leasing, meaning instead of one bureaucracy there's now 50 to battle.
Neal plans to start with California. "The fight's not over," she said.