said by Frohike :

Lucky to have jobs?? So that gives the right of the company to walk all over its employees who helped maintain a very large profit in this harsh economy???

said by Frohike :

Lucky to have jobs?? So that gives the right of the company to walk all over its employees who helped maintain a very large profit in this harsh economy???

The strike is coming...

said by battleop :

Ohhh they have it soooooooooo tough. Here is my experience with the CWA. We ordered some Point to Point T1s. They sent out engineers to survey the install. I told them that they were temporary T1s while we were waiting on fiber and that would be the only Copper we would ever use. So they insist on installing a 50 pair cable. Ok, what ever it's Bell's money.

They wanted conduit from the outside to the server room, no big deal. They wanted a certain brand and model of pull string or they wouldn't pull it in. I spent 3 days trying to find it.

The day of the install five guys show up in three bucket trucks. One gets in the bucket and starts to connect the copper at the pole, while the other four bitched and moaned about working for Bell. The guy gets the cable up to the weather head down the conduit on the out side of the building and stops. After about 30 minutes I go out and ask what is going on. They said they were waiting on some other guys to pull the wire in form the inside. I said "Are you kidding?" and the guy said "Nope, that's not our job." They sat around for almost an hour waiting on some other guys to pull maybe 25 to 50 feet of cable through a 3 inch conduit.

said by Frohike :

Lucky to have jobs?? So that gives the right of the company to walk all over its employees who helped maintain a very large profit in this harsh economy???

The strike is coming...

said by StarFish267 :

If your scabbing I'm put my steel toes in your backdoor!

said by chronoss2010 :

Not that I want to, but duty calls, and I guess I'll request some time your way.

said by Splitpair :

Screw him, come on down here, the sky’s are blue the weather is warm and the girls are cute and on your day off you and I can go out into the Everglades and I'll teach ya about alligator hunting.

Wayne

said by Eat Me :

Won't happen. When you have unions your job is protected.

said by Eat Me :

Won't happen. When you have unions your job is protected.

said by onose2009 :

"For the fourth quarter, AT&T's revenues totaled $31.1 billion, net income was $2.4 billion and cash from operating activities totaled $10.9 billion. Full-year revenues totaled $124.0 billion, net income was $12.9 billion and cash from operating activities totaled $33.7 billion."

direct from this att link:

»www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4···id=26502

yay! meanwhile in 2009 on the northside of Chicago, I'm STILL at 1.5mbps DSL MAX, with UVERSE a dream like the Chicago Cubs world series champions. Thanks to people that favor hands off "no government" intervention, my only other choices are Comcast and RCN, and maybe Covad, but at same DSl speed. YAY! (sarcasm intentional)

said by SECraft :

Just to add to that, ever wondered why companies like ATT don't drop their prices drastically to compete with people like Comcast and Time Warner when it comes to things like phone service? THEY ARENT ALLOWED TO WITHOUT STATE/FEDERAL PERMISSION. What kind of industry is so regulated your not allowed to compete?

said by heat84 :

Those billions will stop rolling in for AT&T when DOC SIS 3 and FIOS are everywhere. I don't know about FIOS, but all of Comcast should be DOC SIS 3ized in a year and a half. Then AT&T and its arrogant striking workers will be screwed. Unless of course U-Veres goes FTTP. But there's a better chance of the Cubs winning the World Series than that happening.

said by Lightsp33d :

Most of you are uninformed and ignorant of the situation. First, this is not a matter of seeking huge wage increases, and making large demands of a company that's in a continuing dwindling business. But rather, trying not to be taken advantage of by the company who is demanding huge takebacks, and trying to lump our union in with the UAW. The misconception is that we are not making money, how about 13 billion of profit with 129 billion of revenue last year. You know, the year that everyone lost there jobs and their buts in the markets. I'm sorry for all of the unemployed, we had layoffs too. But those were just for show, because we'll be hiring alot of those people back after the contract. Our CEO Randall Stevenson negotiated a contract for himself, and he makes literally $75,000 per day. He asked the company not to give him a raise this year, but he did receive over 10 million in company stock. The other thing is this isn't merely a matter of home phone lines, this isn't the only business that our company is in, but rather broadband, video, voip and business. We know our business is evolving, that's why we are negotiating new job titles and duties. AT&T is the most profitable telecom company in the world, we're just trying to keep our little slice of the pie. Also, as far as telling the company what to do with "their" business, I'm a shareholder as are the vast majority of employees, so it's my "business" too.

said by Lightsp33d :

Don't belittle my comment by saying the unemployment rate "negates" my point. You must be a "fast tracker", because you don't sound like you ever worked in Craft. Typical "upper management" rhetoric. I'd guess at least a 3rd line. Or at least a wanna be 3rd line. Do you know what happened in '83?
The company had management running so hard, that they were about to start a management Union. Maybe your so high up that you won't have to callous your pretty hands. We'll see. You proved my point by saying what you did. The company wants to take advantage of the current economic situation to offer sub-standard health care coverage, and take back what the employees have fought for over the past 70 years. Were not hurting, there is no need to make cuts like these. Me and my "Union" brothers and sisters won't let that happen, not without a fight.

said by Pissed Off :

The CWA doesnt seem to care that ATT as a whole froze wadges for all employees this year and provided little to no bonus for anyone.

said by liquidcow :

From what I've read/see/hear, the union is not looking to fatten the bellies of their people (slugs and all). They are looking to not leave the table with an utterly gutted contract. I'm not pro/anti union or pro/anti company. I'm just a believer in fair treatment and HONEST behavior. If the union can hold on to what they have, good for them. If there is a strike, we will ALL be in for an interesting ride for the rest of the year... Good luck to all.

said by jordanair :

there is one thing that most of you dont understand I beleive is that phone companies there is only one place to learn that job, not in college or any Tech school.. the experinec these folk have in only gained on the job.. this is the reason people stay in this job for 30 -40 years... I worked at ATT for a little over 8 years and had been in electronics for 25 years prior and from day one I had to absorb so much infiormation that is boggles the mind.. after leaving a network center tech position I found that after 3 months I even questioned if I could jump back in that seat and perfom=rm , the answer is no I would basically needed a period of retraining...so the point to this is that ATT pays a large percentage for experienc ... and no level of outsourceing will result in the needed level of service that is required and especially in this age...I can tell you this in our "4 day strike" in 2004.. when we got back on that Tuesday we were met with open and tired arms.. and that was just 4 days of which 2 was on a weekend..

said by jordanair :

there is one thing that most of you dont understand I beleive is that phone companies there is only one place to learn that job, not in college or any Tech school.. the experinec these folk have in only gained on the job.. this is the reason people stay in this job for 30 -40 years... I worked at ATT for a little over 8 years and had been in electronics for 25 years prior and from day one I had to absorb so much infiormation that is boggles the mind.. after leaving a network center tech position I found that after 3 months I even questioned if I could jump back in that seat and perfom=rm , the answer is no I would basically needed a period of retraining...so the point to this is that ATT pays a large percentage for experienc ... and no level of outsourceing will result in the needed level of service that is required and especially in this age...I can tell you this in our "4 day strike" in 2004.. when we got back on that Tuesday we were met with open and tired arms.. and that was just 4 days of which 2 was on a weekend..