 Reviews:
 ·ooma
 ·Optimum Online
 ·Verizon FiOS
| middle class? hardly.. the average big corporation doesn't pay middle class wages.. more to the point, slave wages. nevertheless, with $5/gallon of gas approaching, let's humor the fantasyland union who backed the wrong horse standing with AT&T on everything from non-unioned wireless employees to SOPA..
You have to make at least $65k (major metro area, $55k rural) to be middle class for a family of 4 these days at the ENTRY LEVEL because of the enormous healthcare premium contributions made by employees these days. How many jobs at AT&T which are UNION jobs pay that much?
One last thing, AT&T will NEVER be allowed to jettison unprofitable DSL markets since acquiring Bell South! They wanted it, now they've got it. | |
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 | openbox9Premium
join:2004-01-26
japan
kudos:2 | Re: middle class? hardly.. said by tmc8080:One last thing, AT&T will NEVER be allowed to jettison unprofitable DSL markets since acquiring Bell South! What's to prohibit AT&T from selling off markets as Verizon has been doing? | |
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| | Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA | Re: middle class? hardly.. said by openbox9:said by tmc8080:One last thing, AT&T will NEVER be allowed to jettison unprofitable DSL markets since acquiring Bell South! What's to prohibit AT&T from selling off markets as Verizon has been doing? State utility commissions can in most cases unless AT&T is willing to sell off all its lines in a state the way Verizon often did. | |
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| | | openbox9Premium
join:2004-01-26
japan
kudos:2
1 edit | Re: middle class? hardly.. Sure, but have we seen any PUCs that prohibit such sales? | |
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| |  DolganPremium
join:2005-10-01
Sun Prairie, WI
·Charter
| quote:
What's to prohibit AT&T from selling off markets as Verizon has been doing?
They would have to find a buyer first and most of the Rural ILECs are under too much debt to acquire any more territories. TDS and Windstream are the only 2 left who have any purchasing power. AT&T is going to be stuck with all, or most, of their territories for quite a long time. | |
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| | | openbox9Premium
join:2004-01-26
japan
kudos:2 | Re: middle class? hardly.. said by Dolgan:They would have to find a buyer first Agreed, but that's a market limitation, not a prohibition. As for finding buyers, that will depend on how badly T wants out of the business. | |
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| | | rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO | Do they really have to find a buyer first? Couldn't they spin off wired business unit as a separate entity? For that matter, if that part of the business is heavily tied to the union, they could even consider spinning it off as an employee-owned entity, couldn't they? | |
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| | | Are u kidding me? IBM only pays for entry-level rhythm low 30s and majority of the jobs now (new GDFs) are in small towns in rural areas with the exception of boulder in Colorado. | |
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|  RenoPremium
join:2008-10-26
Keller, TX | said by tmc8080:the average big corporation doesn't pay middle class wages.. more to the point, slave wages. nevertheless, with $5/gallon of gas approaching, let's humor the fantasyland union who backed the wrong horse standing with AT&T on everything from non-unioned wireless employees to SOPA..
You have to make at least $65k (major metro area, $55k rural) to be middle class for a family of 4 these days at the ENTRY LEVEL because of the enormous healthcare premium contributions made by employees these days. How many jobs at AT&T which are UNION jobs pay that much?
One last thing, AT&T will NEVER be allowed to jettison unprofitable DSL markets since acquiring Bell South! They wanted it, now they've got it.
You do realize that an AT&T Comm/Network tech starts at around $18/hr on a 5 year auto-raise scale that ends at about $27/hr. This is for a non-managment job level where the majority of the Techs only have a Highschool degree.
That's pretty much your "65K a year" right there. Plus, AT&T Union works have about the best healthcare you can get through an employeer. Also, you'd be hard pressed to find a company that gives as many vacation days out as AT&T does. Any middle class person out there would be damn lucky to get an AT&T job right now.
As far as DSL, when the FCC allows the drop-dead date for landline service (AT&T no longer required to offer landline service), DSL will go with it.
You must be a Democrat worked up into only seeing corporations as pure evil in every regard no matter what the facts are. Your comments are moronic at best and dangerous community organizer Socialist rhetoric at wort. I mean seriously dude, get some perspective. There are so many other corporations out that pay $15/hr for the same exact job as a $27/hr AT&T union job.
Not that I have any love for big Corporations either. Although the day I feel any sympathy for a CWA worker on strike will never come. Those people you see on TV are making damn good money and receiving damn good benefits as well as a very stable job. | |
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| | DolganPremium
join:2005-10-01
Sun Prairie, WI Reviews:
·Charter
| Re: middle class? hardly.. quote:
As far as DSL, when the FCC allows the drop-dead date for landline service (AT&T no longer required to offer landline service), DSL will go with it.
And when is this mythical "drop dead date" for AT&T landline service? AT&T keeps telling us it does not have enough spectrum to service its current base of wireless customers, so how could they justify ending landline service and adding millions of customers to an overburdened Cellular Network? AT&T will be stuck with their landline business for the foreseeable future until they can come up with an alternative that can meet the needs of residential and business customers.
quote:
I mean seriously dude, get some perspective. There are so many other corporations out that pay $15/hr for the same exact job as a $27/hr AT&T union job.
The only Union Jobs where you can make that claim for disparity in pay is for the Call Center jobs. The Comm/Network techs are paid very similar wages throughout the industry{within $2-$3/hr} and the determining factor for the rate/hr will be the location of the job. Techs in large markets {ie Chicago, NY, LA, and etc} will be at the top of the scale and the wages will decrease as the markets get smaller. | |
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| | | | Another thing that has to be considered is the importance of technology at the job to the profitability of the company.
Company A may pay a technology person $65k a year where as Company B may pay a technology person doing the exact same or even more only $45k simply because Company B does not rely on the technology side as much for it's core business and profitability.
Obviously to AT&T technology/networking/installation of those things is very important to the core of their business and they should be paying the people doing that premiums for doing so.
Also, AT&T is a huge contractor just like Microsoft and the #1 reason they do it is to avoid paying the actual "price" for employees. That practice within itself is quite shady and should part of a whole other discussion. | |
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| | | | Seconded. After 5 years of service as a technician, I had over 4 weeks of paid vacation a year, not counting paid holidays. | |
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| | | | Your figures are very close...but the top pay now is around $32/hour for an outside technician who works on the outside lines.
The pay is very good and so are the healthcare benefits. As far as the vacation days, they are about on par with normal jobs. 2 weeks vacation/year for the first 7 years, then 3 weeks until 15, then 4 weeks until 25 then it tops out at 5 weeks.
Now as far as the pay goes, what most people don't understand is when you work that job, at&t owns you and commands a great deal of your time/life. Not only do we work in all weather conditions, but we drive a company vehicle, have to exhibit a certain amount of strength/dexterity, have to have excellent troubleshooting skills, and have to have excellent one-on-one customer skills. Also, you never know when you are going to get off at the end of the day. The company has the right to force you to work late any day--they also have the right to force you to come in on your day off (yes, we get paid for every hour we work). It makes planning any event after work or on your days off VERY difficult because you do not know if you we be able to attend.
I'm not whining about my job. I really like my job. I'm just trying to show why the pay is high--they ask a lot of us. Besides, it is a Craftsman job. No one blinks an eye to pay more than $35/hour for auto repair/air conditioning work/plumbing/electrical/etc.
AT&T has hired outside technicians for less--they are called Premise Technicians and they only do the inside work for Uverse. The turnover rate with them is sky high. Why, because of the pay scale, the techs view it as a job, not a career. In my storeroom, the average years of service is over 20 years. You get a lot of quality and know-how with that much experience.
Just my 2 cents. | |
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| | | AT&T wanted Bell South's 40% stake in Cingular, not their wireline business. It was less expensive to buy the whole company than just the wireless portion. | |
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| axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC | Maybe they back things that make AT&T money, so that they can get more money too?
In an ideal world, unions would stay out of politics. But, if they did that it would mean their demise. | |
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| | | as a unionized technician with AT&T, I can very quickly verify that we make much more than 55-65K a year. Think 100+. To be honest, I know I'm overpaid. I make over 100 grand a year (thats with my overtime) have pretty damm good health insurance (even though they want me to pay more for it, it was free for myself and my family up until the last contract) and I decent 401k setup. All of this, with a driver's license, and a high school diploma. (Didn't finish college, to many late night "study" sessions) | |
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| | Will it do any good? Sure it may inconvinience AT&T for a day or so but they've planned for this. They probably have contractors already in place to fill the gaps. With such high unemployment the death star will have no
Problems filling these jobs. Strike just dont mean as much as they used too. Is AT&T right? Hell no with the money they make they should be able to keep
Quality employees. | |
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| | | Re: Will it do any good? said by TWCcdman:Sure it may inconvinience AT&T for a day or so but they've planned for this. They probably have contractors already in place to fill the gaps.
Management employees...
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.:|:. aztec being aztec...™ | |
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| | | Dont be naive, this isnt flipping Burgers. It takes a quite a bit of time /training/ specific skills to do those jobs. | |
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| | | | Re: Will it do any good? Being a former Bellsouth employee I know what involved in the job. Before the last strike AT&T was advertising for contractors and retirees to fill in for the union jobs. | |
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| | | | | Re: Will it do any good? Being a form BellSouth employee, you would know that the last strike they saw was in the 80's. 1982 or 1984, don't recall right now. | |
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| | | | said by ITALIAN926:Dont be naive, this isnt flipping Burgers. It takes a quite a bit of time /training/ specific skills to do those jobs.
Sure does, but they will get tons of practice fixing the cables, boxes and drops cut by the union thugs who run around thinking that's a good idea. | |
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 LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 |  Customers dropping landlines give CWA no power
I expect an agreement to mostly consist of SOME small job protections in exchange for cost savings to AT&T on wages and benefits.
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The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
»www.politico.com/2012-election/
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| | | Re: Customers dropping landlines give CWA no power Perhaps if it didn't take 7-14 days to get a POTS line installed, and also fixed people would consider keeping it, if price was not a consideration. | |
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| | | | Re: Customers dropping landlines give CWA no power Very true.. it does take too long to get a regular landline installed and/or repaired. Many of us believe that AT&T is giving poor service to POTS lines on purpose--trying to get people to drop their landline. I've even heard customers tell me that when they called in to report trouble, they were told that it would take a week for a regular repair tech to get out to them--but that they could get VOIP dial tone tomorrow if they signed up for Uverse.
And, by the way, one thing they leave out of the statistics about dropping land lines is that before DSL came out, the phone companies were out of space on their switches (too many people had computer modems dialed in for long periods of time). The network was not built out to accommodate such long average call times. Rolling out DSL was so much cheaper than adding new switches that I once heard an engineer say that it would be cheaper for them to give away DSL than to add switches. So--not all of the past history of land lines being disconnected is due to people switching to cell phones, DSL factors in too. | |
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| | In other news... ...the buggy drivers union is on the 37,500th day of strike, protesting the increasing loss of jobs to personal cars and cabs. | |
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|  pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Re: In other news...
On Strike... FOREVER! |
said by cowboyro:...the buggy drivers union is on the 37,500th day of strike, protesting the increasing loss of jobs to personal cars and cabs.
I can just see it now...
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"Net Neutrality" zealots - the people you can thank for your capped Internet service. | |
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| | | At some point Cowboy, people have to be able to work. If they feel they don't have the oppurtunity, they might get desperate and come to your house to get what they need.
I am sure Marie Antoinette can tell you how it feels. | |
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| | Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: In other news... said by FloridaBoy:At some point Cowboy, people have to be able to work. If they feel they don't have the oppurtunity, they might get desperate and come to your house to get what they need.
They are always free to learn new things and diversify. Jobs in any given field come and go and what was once popular is now limited to a handful of people.
You won't find many horse saddle craftsmen, many COBOL programmers, many door to door vacuum cleaner salesmen...
Times change, you either go ahead with the new trends or are left in the dust whining. | |
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| | |  AlakarFacts do not cease to exist when ignored
join:2001-03-23
Milwaukee, WI | Re: In other news... said by cowboyro:You won't find many horse saddle craftsmen, many COBOL programmers, many door to door vacuum cleaner salesmen...
Hmmm, 30 pages of job listings for COBOL programmers on Dice. The rest of your statement was just as ill informed.
AT&T uses it's management employees to cover critical functions during a strike. It's a short term solution at best. While most of the union jobs don't require a college degree, they do require training and skills that you don't get over night. Replacing those workers won't be as simple as you think it would be.
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"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." William Pitt the Younger | |
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| | | | Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: In other news... said by Alakar:said by cowboyro:You won't find many horse saddle craftsmen, many COBOL programmers, many door to door vacuum cleaner salesmen...
Hmmm, 30 pages of job listings for COBOL programmers on Dice. The rest of your statement was just as ill informed. Out of which 29 are from staffing agencies trying to get resumes in... | |
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| | | | Bring it on, Occutard. That's why the good Lord invented shotguns and Sheriffs. | |
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Reviews:
·Callcentric
·Comcast
| Stop screwing with your customer base att Att you have purposely chased people off with your constant rate hikes and erosion of consumer rights and crappy tech support and lets not forget warrantless wire tapping.
If you treat your customers right they would come back maybe, then there wouldn't be a worker strike. | |
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See 9 replies to this post |
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Reviews:
·Charter
| Heh... Let them sell all their landlines. Every last one of them. When they do so they give up their pole access rights at which time someone can come in, get rid of their 100 year old copper and drop in fiber to everyone. Wireless won't exceed wired internet for years to come and that might once and for all finally kill the influence this company has had in holding back technology for so many years.
AT & T - go for it! | |
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| pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Re: Heh... said by megarock:Let them sell all their landlines. Every last one of them. When they do so they give up their pole access rights at which time someone can come in, get rid of their 100 year old copper and drop in fiber to everyone. Just like Frontier and the other companies that bought out Verizon's unwanted markets did... /s
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"Net Neutrality" zealots - the people you can thank for your capped Internet service. | |
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mikefxu
join:2004-10-05
Titusville, FL | Bleh Most the ATT employees I interact with are incompetent from every level: cellular, home and business. I have had great service from the enterprise level. Fire them all and hire anyone else that wants a job in the economy. A first day employee is no more competent or intelligent about ATT versus ones that have been there awhile. | |
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| | | Re: Bleh Did you ever think that maybe it's not everyone you come into contact with? Maybe you are looking at the incompetent person every morning in the mirror.... | |
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| | mikefxu
join:2004-10-05
Titusville, FL | Re: Bleh I could write a book on my daily adventures with ATT. I hate/lothe ATT and love every time I can take business away from them. If they are not going to staff competent and ethical (mostly cellular, corporate stores) employees, they are not doing a service to me, the customer. Trust me, when I find a competent and ethical ATT employee I keep them in my Rolodex. I usually get my cellular service and equipment from a business cellular rep I have in my Rolodex. Every time I go to the corporate store they screw up in some manner or complete add things to our accounts in a unethical manner. Calling for new landlines and/or Internet service through the United States for ATT is a painful. I have never had a positive experience from beginning to end. Starting ATT dry DSL service at home was one of the worst experience ever. I work with many carriers throught the United States and would have to say ATT is one of the worst companies to work with.
I am not the only one that agrees: »consumerist.com/2012/04/worst-co···art.html
You don't have to defend the shit company you work for. Its just a job.
I use to do telemarketing in high school and I would never defend that at the time or now. Shit is shit. | |
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| | | Ive been with AT&T (bellsouth) for almost 9 years, in small business. I always exceeded my numbers, gave excellent customer service, but since AT&T took over, my customer service is still first and now I'm going to be fired next month because of it. AT&T cares nothing for the customer, it's all about sales. i take care of my customers, but I'm about to be fired because of the unrealistic sales targets they give us and I won't slam products on customers' accounts. I actually handle customer requests, follow up with them to make sure their billing is correct, but that doesn't matter to AT&T because I didn't sell anything to them. With bellsouth, we were taught to consult with the customer and offer products based on need, now it doesn't matter if you need it or not, just sell it. They don't train reps anymore how to use and navigate the systems properly, they only train them to sell. It really is disheartening to say the least, I'm sorry you've had such horrible experiences with AT&T, I can tell you, from what I've seen, it's just going to get worse. | |
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 KommiePremium
join:2003-05-13
united state
kudos:2 | Force ATT to go FTTH If the Union wants more jobs force ATT to start deploying FTTH in the Contract. | |
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See 7 replies to this post |
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 nunyaWho is John Galt?Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
kudos:8
·Charter
 ·surpasshosting
·voip.ms
| Bad Timing This is very bad timing on the part of the union. As with Verizon, the union will lose. It's time for them to face reality.
Let me give my background before I go further. I am former SWBT / SBC / AT&T group 1 craft. I do have a vested interest in the company.
The current benefits and pay are second to none. You'll be hard pressed to find better anywhere USA.
The first problem is the economy is not improving. Maybe barely. At the rate we are going, with population changes we are still technically going backwards. There are 10 guys waiting in line for every one one of these jobs.
Secondly, wireline is dieing on the vine. The traditional phone business is ancient history. DSL is ancient and can't compete with other technology. There aren't enough U-Verse markets to keep wireline in business.
Wireless is where it's at. That's the cash cow... and it won't last forever.
Third, and this does tie into the economy, there will be little to no public sympathy. When people find out that an uneducated cable splicer or repairman makes $75,000.00 - $100,000.00/ yr plus full benefits - they won't feel too sorry for them. What the company won't be putting in their press releases is that a lot of that is due to forced OT. Employees have no choice. Work it or be fired.
I know to someone who is unemployed that sounds really "tough", but it does take a strong toll on families. A lot of divorces. The joke was, you had to work all that OT to pay for your wife's lawyer.
Don't get me wrong - most of these guys earn every nickel and benefit they get. It's extremely hard work, and takes years of OTJ to be worth a shit.
AT&T also treats it's employees like crap. They are ruthless. Cruel beyond measure in some cases. The only reason most stay is for the benefits and pay. That's the only shining light in the AT&T world - every other Friday.
The new U-Verse "premise techs" have turnover comparable to CATV, because they don't make enough money to put up with the BS. That's why all their installs look like shit now. They can't keep qualified people.
The union is going to have to accept that employees are going to have to "kick in" for their benefits like the rest of the work force does.
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...because I care. | |
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| axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC | Re: Bad Timing You'd think that forced overtime means AT&T really really can't afford to have people stop working. How about forced 40 hours/week, then AT&T saves money and doesn't have to fire anyone. | |
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| | | "As with Verizon, the union will lose"
The union hasnt lost a thing (yet)
Same contract in place as before. The same contract that verizon needed to be gutted last august or the sky would fall. the same contract that they complained would hurt them. Ironically they still are not doing so bad, just gave the new ceo a triple increase in pay | |
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| | | Well then give up your Pension and benefits | |
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| | nunyaWho is John Galt?Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
kudos:8 | Re: Bad Timing They'll be long gone soon enough.
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...because I care. | |
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See 6 replies to this post |
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bn1221
join:2009-04-29
Cortland, NY Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
| I found the VZ strike last year ironic I heard on the radio during the VZ strike last year they strikers were upset they would have to pay double for healthcare - going from 50$ and month to 100$ a month. They also said the average striker was 8-9 years time of service and made around 37$ per hour..and with overtime they averaged 100K per year.
My health insurance is 58$ per week - so I'm not sure the wireline guys had a right to complain. I work 60-70 hours on a flat salary and make around 1/2 of what a striking employee made.
So, I don't have a lot of sympathy for these folks | |
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| | | Re: I found the VZ strike last year ironic Thats the problem with the working class, they point the finger and say "i dont have what he had" and he should lose it. Until its a race to the bottom.
Bn1221, that kind of thinking will lead to wireline guys making what YOU make now and then you making half of that.
Instead of participating in that lowest common denominator way of thinking, you should be asking why you dont get better pay or benefits.
Remember, the people in the "ivory tower" sit back and laugh as we fight it out.
The "new" ceo of Verizon got a raise in pay from 7 MILLION to over 21 MILLION.. Thats nice, i bet everyone would love to triple their pay in one year | |
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| KommiePremium
join:2003-05-13
united state
kudos:2 | Get a Union or if you have one when contract Expires or is about to Expire find a better Union. | |
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| | bn1221
join:2009-04-29
Cortland, NY | Re: I found the VZ strike last year ironic Salaried people don't have a union. | |
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| | | KommiePremium
join:2003-05-13
united state
kudos:2 | Re: I found the VZ strike last year ironic said by bn1221:Salaried people don't have a union.
Yes they do. Nothing stopping you for forming a professional union unless your a supervisor.
The Boeing Engineers did it
»www.speea.org/ | |
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|  tim_kButtons, Bows, Beamer, Shadow, KaseyPremium,VIP
join:2002-02-02
Stewartstown, PA
kudos:25 | said by bn1221:I heard on the radio during the VZ strike last year they strikers were upset they would have to pay double for healthcare - going from 50$ and month to 100$ a month. They also said the average striker was 8-9 years time of service and made around 37$ per hour..and with overtime they averaged 100K per year.
My health insurance is 58$ per week - so I'm not sure the wireline guys had a right to complain. I work 60-70 hours on a flat salary and make around 1/2 of what a striking employee made.
So, I don't have a lot of sympathy for these folks
Well you heard wrong, those numbers are completely off. For the record Verizon wants to increase health care costs by about $6,000 a year. Add up all the concessions together and you get about a $20,000/yr pay cut. Then there are the other concessions that are aren't directly money related.
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RIP my babies Buttons 1/15/94-2/9/07, Beamer 7/24/08, & Bows 12/17/94-10/11/09 | |
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 93388818It's cool, I'm takin it backPremium
join:2000-03-14
Dallas, TX |  CWA/Verizon status?
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| | | Re: CWA/Verizon status? Currently, IBEW & CWA represented workers at Verizon do so under an extension of the old, expired contract. This agreement is now in force until such time that either the unions or company provides a 7 day notice to quit the contract extension. | |
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| | landlines are here to stay you guys seem to forget that a lot of people still dont have acsses to cellphone or cable phone tech and that cell phone service does not reach a lot of the outlying country side in a lot places still. Like it or not theres no way you can get rid of landline service without leaving a bunch of the country in the dark. | |
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|  PhoenixDown-- Wants FIOSPremium
join:2003-06-08
Fresh Meadows, NY
kudos:1 | Re: landlines are here to stay Do you feel ATT or Verizon have any intention of remaining in the landline phone business? Wireless, sure - but landlines are not the place they want to be. Just look at the companies they aquired over the last few years. | |
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| | | | Re: landlines are here to stay Even though AT&T keeps claiming it wants to go completely wireless--it's just not feasible.
I agree that the old copper is outdated and cannot keep up with the future bandwidth demands--but neither can wireless. Remember, AT&T lost the bid for T-Mobile and lost the coveted spectrum rights that came with it. Is there anyone out there that is happy with their cellular data speed? If you had to rely only on cellular data, would it work for you? Many homes (especially in the south) are getting that radiant barrier put in their attic to help with the summer cooling bills--but that is a metallic barrier that also blocks out cellular signal. Some homes are built with spray in foam insulation and cell signals are degraded getting through. No, broadband service (at the level we will want it at in the future) cannot be served by the cell towers. Also because one cell tower serves many, many customers and there just isn't enough bandwidth coming in to that tower to feed everyone simultaneously.
I believe the answer in the future is fiber to the premise. Each house would have it's own fiber whose bandwidth is their own. The speed of data would only be limited by the hardware plugged in each end. I just wish they would get started in the huge task of upgrading the system. | |
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| | ATT Could careless. Maybe the Union employees should give a little and actually PAY for more things they want like the rest of the American public- like health insurance. Maybe they should be paid like the rest of us on job performance and NOT a union contract pay scale. And they also should be terminated if they can NOT preform their job.
The rest of us face that each and every day so why not them?
And claiming that they are a skilled work force that should be paid a higher wage is BS. There are plenty of non-union employees that could preform these duties. | |
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| | Greed and poor mangement 300,000 employees which 100,000 are contractors world wide.
Training strike workers is a joke.
The company has made $12 billion profit per year for the last decade except 2011,only $8 billion due to $4 billion
payment to Tm.
The unions have been giving back for the last 12 years and the
company still wants more profit.
Ever wonder why the new premise tech job has a 60% turnover
rate? | |
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| | Retraining All the $ spent in meetings strategizing and training management to do their employees jobs-which many admit they COULDNT do could have been spent on the contract revision in favor of the employees. The pay increase is less than half of the inflation rate DUHHHHH! | |
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| | strike Just keep talking on both sides . Believe me as a so called manager we do "not" want to do your job and be away from our families for weeks at a time sitting in a hotel room. We dont want to your job but as the company so nicely puts it "up to and including termination if we don't . Oh and we already pay a big chunk for our health care so don't go there with that topic!!!  | |
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 monchisPremium
join:2002-12-09
Los Angeles, CA
kudos:1 | I don't get it... It's so crazy how much negative things I hear about ATT and yet they still are a very successful company. What is it exactly that they are doing right?
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Nate70
join:2010-01-07
Beverly Hills, CA | The real story, not the misconceptions I have 20 years of service with AT&T. Well, really, I started with a regional Bell company but in 1997, SBC took over operations in a buyout. Although the name says AT&T, it's really SBC that we are talking about here since they in essence bought the AT&T name and sent that company to the scrap heap.
As a Bell Regional employee, I had no complaints. I did my job well; I provided great service and had high production. The Regional Bell Company took care of me and made a great profit. But since SBC took over, there has been a consistent cultural change. Starting in 1997, SBC began cost cutting measures that eliminated things like excessive toilet paper rolls, security guards, bottled water fountains, company exercise facilities, discounts on products and services and trash service was cut in company facilities and eliminated in rural unmanned offices. SBC began a process of "corporate terrorism" by informing employees that they are/were "dead weight," "lazy" and "overpaid." This started from the beginning. Managers began to criticize production levels that just a year earlier were "spectacular," but post-SBC was "unacceptable." Unfortunately, those high production levels were also high in "customer service" which began to be taboo in the SBC cost-cutting paradigm. SBC, from the beginning, chose to sacrifice customer service in the pursuit of "profit at any cost." Unfortunately, the union in order to be in good graces with the new SBC company, became a "yes" man to their demands with the hope of higher wages and things like card-checking (which SBC used to secure approval from the union).
Fast forward to now: The corporate culture has worsened. During the last few years, employees that have maintained extremely high levels of production are no longer being recognized as being high performers but rather as "cheaters" and "liars." Employees with lower levels of production are being placed into "tiers" and disciplined accordingly and routinely threatened that they will be fired. These low level producing employees have been maintaining the same production level since working for the Regional Bell Company that was considered "excellent!"[craftsmanship has been abandoned in favor of speed and sloppy work] In many cases, it is physically impossible to produce any more work but employees are told they are not producing enough. The working conditions at SBC (AT&T) are reminiscent of post-industrial time periods in which children were forced to work 12-hour days and adult workers could never work hard enough. That's just my interpretation of my new work environment (since about 2006). Workers with the lowest production levels (and threatened to be fired) have the least desirable areas, harder facilities to work, while the highest producers work in easier areas including buried facilities. SBC (AT&T) has instituted a "divide and conquer" mentality which pits employees against one another, encourages competition for perks, and eliminates the ability of a sick employee to call in sick without the threat of being suspended, and in some cases, terminated. This is where a culture of unfair treatment has started and continued to the point of making AT&T a "hostile work environment."
Although most AT&T employees have "great wages," and I FULLY AGREE we do, AT&T has created a work environment where people are literally dying on the job (I can name three people in the last 9 months in my city that have died on the job). If you think the great wages the typical AT&T employees makes is something that is "desirable" to you, you need to understand the immense stress that working for AT&T entails. You may find yourself divorced (I've come close twice), stressed out (plenty of counseling here), sick in body (ten surgeries here), threatened to be fired even when doing your job (suspended three times here but then found baseless resulting in a payback of wages) and a plethora of blood-pressure elevating acts in a normal and typical day of work (like being punished by brutal physical work while other employees are rewarded with easy work for their brown-nosing)! Throw in a union that is basically powerless, and nine-times-out-of-ten, you are alone.
Now to the impending strike. The question I have to ask you is this: If you worked under these hostile work conditions, wouldn't you want to have an above-average wage? Do I think our top pay of $33.78 is worth the stress of what we have to deal with on a daily basis? Do we have extreme amounts of vacation to be used for extravagant trips and events? Not really, most people use vacation to get away from the threats they endure on a daily basis by sitting in their homes and trying to "recover." Should we pay more for health insurance that is already costing us plenty in cost sharing because of the physical sickness the stress of working at AT&T creates? Cost share a part of a $20,000-$100,000 surgery due to stress from the AT&T working conditions... that $33.78 looks more like $22-$24 now.
If you think I am exaggerating, ASK THE NEXT AT&T WIRELINE WORKER YOU SEE!
The unfortunate reality is this: I have educated myself and obtained two college degrees in order to leave AT&T but with the crappy economy, there is no where to go. AT&T knows this and has increased their attacks on their employees. Even though AT&T made over $11 BILLION in net profit last year, they know they can use the downturn to "increase profits!" Remember that SBC cost-cutting paradigm we talked about? They've already cut incidentals like garbage and water to maximize profit (greed) and now they are coming after the people that generate the profit. In my opinion, it is a series of incompetent management decisions. Instead of encouraging employees to produce more and be better (hence greater monetary rewards), they choose to shoot themselves in the foot by continuing to punish employees for their hard work (and consequently can't figure out why production and customer service is going down every year).
So, there is my two cents. Before you think you know what it's like at AT&T, you should start confirming my statements with other AT&T employees. AT&T employees, am I right?
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