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 ·Comcast
| And that's what happens in Big Business. well here goes...
i was a member of IBEW 2323 in Rhode Island for 10 years. the same local Union that guys/gals worked for Vz.
to set things straight, Verizon at first offered the FiOS schooling to the senior technicians in the local Union IBEW 2323). many of them declined and stayed in Outside Plant, Residential, etc. VZ then went on a hiring spree and hired new folks off the street for FiOS installers and for the FiOS Call Center in downtown Providence.
Rhode Island was getting wired so fast with FiOS is was amazing. Cox (the primary Cable Co in the State) started freaking out because all they had to deal with before FiOS was a paltry 700-800k download from Vz DSL.
I actually asked a couple of the new FiOS guys at the Union office in Cranston what was going to happen to them when the whole State got wired and their installation skills were no longer needed to support the massive out-roll of FiOS. i think i actually said it to Kevin Desmond (big wig at the local) once about the new guys won't have a job when Vz gets the whole State wired.
well, its come to that. whats the top directive for the local? at all costs, protect seniority.
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I've come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass and i'm all outta bubblegum. |
| Unions stick to seniority because it is the only non- gameable measure. I would like to hear a defended argument that there is a direct negative correlation between seniority and "productivity". Full disclosure, I am a Verizon FIOS tech in RI. I have seen the company define productivity in many ways in my almost 10 years here.Through all that time, I have seen talented and hard working people have low "productivity" because it is the nature of their work. An example would be the cable repair techs whose work takes a lot of time, as in sectionalize & locate trouble, get police detail, pump & purge manhole enter & open splice case and do the actual repair.Are they less productive than the business installer who identifies and connects 10 lines at a terminal in an hour? I submit that the ratio of "productive" to " non-productive" employees has remained constant through the ages,and any other measure would hand an advantage to those who are connected or can game the measurement. That injustices result from seniority is not in dispute; the question is what fair system do you propose to replace it with. |
