In My Opinion: Relations With AT&T Come to a Crossroads

Reproduced here is a portion of a company leaflet used during a recent organizing campaign at an AT&T cable unit in Gillette, Wyo., formerly a TCI operation that is now part of AT&T Broadband & Internet Services, or ABIS.

Note that management, in listing consequences of a vote for CWA, suggests that the union will ask
workers to "sabotage our plant" in the event of a strike.
This was merely the most outrageous example from a campaign of lies, threats and promises by AT&T that could have been scripted by any of the more notorious union-busting consultants. To their credit, the workers responded with an 11 to 1 vote for CWA.

For AT&T management to suggest that CWA would promote criminal activity in the form of sabotage, as this flyer does, crosses a line that I think even the worst anti-union employer would think twice about. This kind of tactic by a venerable corporation such as AT&T is shocking and deserves the strongest condemnation.

The day after I faxed a protest to CEO Michael Armstrong, AT&T; announced the hasty departure of ABIS head and former TCI executive Leo Hindery - an action that I would like to think was intended to signal Armstrong's disapproval of such deplorable behavior.

If so, however, the CEO hasn't made that message clear enough to the management ranks, because it continues to be business as usual - anti-union coercion by managers and vicious disparagement of CWA - at AT&T wireless and broadband/cable offices where we have organizing campaigns.

As AT&T continues to cut jobs in its core, unionized business - even to the point that service and reliability are being jeopardized - while fighting to shut off access by our members to the growth areas of wireless and broadband, there is genuine cause to ask: Is AT&T, a union company for more than a half-century, now determined to become union-free?

There certainly have been signs of a culture shift at AT&T, away from the values of a corporation that for years has respected the collective bargaining process, recognized the contribution of its workers, and generally has worked to maintain positive labor relations.

No doubt, that is largely because of wholesale management changes. Forty percent of the board of directors and two-thirds of the senior management team are new to AT&T since just 1996. In acquiring the TCI cable operation, AT&T took on board openly union-hating executives like John Malone and the recently departed Hindery.

We appear to be approaching a crucial crossroads in our relations with AT&T. It will be up to top management to decide whether we can pursue a path leading toward a restoration of mutual trust and cooperation, with the added value of a stable, skilled, high-performance workforce. The other path leads toward a state of discord which will benefit no one.

AT&T must realize its workers and our union are absolutely determined not to stand by and see our jobs lost and our bargaining power eroded while the corporation grows the business non-union.

We intend to have a future at AT&T, and we'll fight for that future if need be.