AT&T Cutting 2,500 Jobs > Does This Make Union Employees Happier?

Does This Make Union Employees Happier?

Don't be naive. They are removing experience and long term job positions that are union and replacing them with lower paid temporary and "independent contractors." They also lower service and quality at the same time.... but save money.

As for the guarantee of a job offer... have you never experienced that? It's kinda like my company when people come back from disability or FMLA.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

investors love contractors because they save money. listen to calls from customers wanting service in the cable industry and they will ask many times for an in house tech and not one of those contractors again.

says lots about contractor work.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports

Exactly.... and in an anti-competitive enviornment, they can get away with the lower cost/poorer service. When people have few or many no other options, well, they may not like being shafted, but they have to take it anyway.

However, if competition is widespread, they cannot afford poor quality service. They lose customers. When you see AT&T making moves like this they are basically saying "We don't care, we know it won't harm us."
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

reply to KrK

Uh, no. The point of contractors is they are temporary, and cheaper. (Short term, anyway.)

reply to KrK
See that's the big misconception. Just because someone is union and performed a job for 30 years doesn't mean that they can do the work better than a non-union person with 5 years of experience.

reply to KrK
And likely more productive.

reply to KrK

reply to Z80
I have seen the older worker retire and the company finds they have to hire 2 people to get the same work done. Many companies do not realize how much institutional knowledge walks out the door until they are gone. Sometimes that older employee makes it look easy because they are working smart not hard.
I have also seen younger workers act like teenagers at home Do I have too.
The problem in the US is we do not make anything so all we are really doing in a service economy is taking the money out of one pocket and moving it to many pockets.
The landline part of the business is between a rock and a hard place. The telco has to make the service available but every household has the option not to buy the service so the telco cost is fixed. The state regulates what can be charged each month that was set when almost every home used the service. Now the same homes have the choice of landline, wireless and cable voip. I bet the state taxes every wire in every cable every year even if a customer is not using it for service.

reply to openbox9

"Alexandria thinking"? Actually, that is how I've seen it work. Contract employees are cheaper for companies to hire precisely for the fact that the companies don't need to pay for benefits and retirement plans. Fairly straightforward concept. As for vacation time, health insurance, etc., that's why I wrote "take home pay". Besides, it depends on the contract negotiations as far as the benefits go.

reply to KrK
They're cheaper because the companies aren't on the hook to pay for benefits or pensions.

reply to Z80
Everytime any issue comes over with the Word "Union" in it you always get this political backlash of people who repeat the same thing over and over. Union = bad, Union workers = lazy, overpaid, Union management = corrupt

etc etc yadda yadda yadda.

Different story, same response. That's because it's a false political ideology. I surely hope one day these people learn the sheer depth of their mistake.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

reply to openbox9

reply to KrK

reply to KrK
Because it saves money.

reply to KrK
The unions don't exist to make workers poorer or motivate them to work harder. The whole point of the Union is to get workers more pay for less work.

On the other hand AT&T is free to "shop" elsewhere for labor like everyone else.

reply to Lesaonar
Unions have their place now, but they must understand that labor is not a "my way or the highway" proposition. Globalization has forced the Unions as well as the employers to compete in the global marketplace. If the unions are not willing to compete, they will evaporate.