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 SteveConIBEW 2222 Boston, MAPremium
join:2004-09-02
Boston, MA | We're human, too! Forced PAID overtime. There's overtime and there's forced overtime. All overtime is paid! To all those heroes in managment that have agreed to work all kinds of crazy hours for a predetermined amount of money: good for you! Hourly employees on the other hand are to be paid at least 1.5 times their normal rate for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a week or in the case of many union contracts, in excess of 8 hours in one day. Usually, unless you work in a sweatshop or for a public utility - if overtime is available, you can choose NOT to work it. Clauses in many utility labor contracts provide for minimum levels of overtime that one is expected to work - when needed. Further, even more hours can be expected in "situations beyond the company's control" - weather related issues are the usually trigger for this.
Being "forced" by its very nature is doing something that you do not want to do. Maybe not everyone complains initially, but working week after week after week - to what amounts to nearly double shifts is not something most normal folks can endure without some grumbling. It's even harder when you aren't told how long this new schedule will last.. it's a day to day or week to week thing. That means forget about doing anything other than working and sleeping; for who knows how long. Customers are unhappy, supervisors are trying to get more done in less time with the people they have; tension is high, patience is tumbling and everyone suffers. The employee's personal and family life takes a significant hit.
But the hidden danger, the one I don't believe anyone mentioned is: safety. This kind of work is not like cleaning out your basement on a Saturday morning, or maybe putting a swing set together for the kids on the weekend. It's difficult, technical and often performed in extremes of heat, cold & humidity, etc. These conditions only further complicate an already difficult job. Heap on an extra two or three helpings of fatigue and you have all the ingredients for tragedy. Most utility employees do a great job - and they want to help their customers. They're the face the customer sees and deals with - not the CEO or even the supervisor. It's human nature to complain about things you don't want to do. TelCo employees are human, too.
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UNIONS: The anti-theft device for working people. | |
|  Reviews:
 ·WOW Internet and..
| Re: We're human, too! and the companies can tell those employees to take a hike. don't like it go work else where. They have a job and they are told to work. but you don't have that with a union employee. they work when they want and only do what they want. that's the problem. if you took away that union and told them to work and do what they're told like others around the country they'd wake up and see what a real job is.
Unions only do one thing. that's run a company into the ground. The unions didn't want the sell off of the company; nor did they want VZ to keep the network. so what did they want. they just wanted to bitch. What happens when the telcos start waking up and killing off the landline system and going straight 100% wirelss without any jobs except repair at the towers and CSR jobs. those union boys won't be able to do shit because nobody will hire them. They ran 2 other companies into the ground and what did that get them; no where except on the unemployment line and still there. They'll do it to Frontier and the others as well.
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| DolganPremium
join:2005-10-01
Sun Prairie, WI Reviews:
·Charter
| 70+ hrs a week has been the norm for the former VZ techs for the last 5 years{closer to 90 during the summer storm season} in the Midwest region [now Frontier as well]. If a tech feels that it is unsafe for them to work the overtime, by contract they can refuse it--mandatory or not. The WV techs are being a bunch of crybabies on this issue and should enjoy making the extra money while they can. | |
|  dmxrob6Premium
join:2005-06-24
Boonville, MO
 ·AT&T Southwest
1 edit | Well if it is THAT bad, then maybe you guys need to FIRE your union? Or maybe you need to get better reps in there? Because right now you aren't going to get a lot of sympathy from many folks who are out of work and see no hope on the horizon.
You guys VOTED on the contract, you should have READ it first. If you didn't like the forced overtime, you should have said something about it before the vote and not start complaining when what you VOTED for is actually ENFORCED.
Sorry, but zero sympathy from me. I know far too many folks out of work who would kill to get a job like this. So crying about overtime when people are being laid off left and right isn't going to win you any brownie points in this neck of the woods -- and especially not from me. Either do the job you AGREED to do on the CONDITIONS you agreed to, or get fired -- seems pretty simple to me. I probably know at least 15 people who can have their resume and credentials for your job on the appropriate desk by 8am on Monday. | |
| | SteveConIBEW 2222 Boston, MAPremium
join:2004-09-02
Boston, MA | Re: We're human, too! You want me to believe NONE of you would complain about working 70+ hour work weeks - right?
C'mon.. I don't believe that anyone would be happy working 70+ hour work weeks. That's not saying that you wouldn't actually do the work - but would you be doing it with a smile still after the second week? I seriously doubt it. That's what the TelCo techs were doing - complaining about being forced to do it. The vast majority of them worked the assigned shifts.
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UNIONS: The anti-theft device for working people. | |
| | | DolganPremium
join:2005-10-01
Sun Prairie, WI Reviews:
·Charter
| Re: We're human, too! I would not complain as I worked 75-90 hrs a week as a Chef for 8yrs...it comes with the territory. This relatively short stint of forced overtime is nothing to complain about. The IBEW techs should be getting double time for any hrs worked past the 1st nine hrs of OT {that was in our IBEW Local 21 contract when I worked at SBC/Ameritech}--a large % of the techs were making 6 figures because of this rule. Too bad CWA has never been strong enough to get the same rule in their contracts.
You have brought up safety as an issue--I agree with you, but a tech has a right to refuse work if they feel that they, or the work, is unsafe. 70hrs does not create that much of a safety issue--it is when the techs work 80+ that fatigue really starts to come into the equation. Furthermore, the techs are not truly working 70 hrs as driving to the job sites is included in that time, and driving is not really working for the field techs.
The thing that sucks the most when working that many hours is the lack of quality family time--that is about the only reason I can see to complain. The money they made over that time should compensate somewhat, and they will get more family time in the long run. | |
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| | YES! Thank you for putting it into perspective. I was a non union worker from 1986 to 2000. It was in 2000 that I applied and received a job at BellSouth. What a lot of people do not realize is that being represented by a Union is that you have a CHOICE to work overtime. I am not blind to what is going on in today's work/labor force, to be employed today is definetely a good thing. If we are working all this overtime then that means people have money to spend, thus giving us the work. I am required to work a certain amount of overtime however I should not be forced to work mandatory overtime ESPECIALLY when the company has deciced to reduce the workforce. Yes, upper-level management has decided to reduce their bottom line and have decided to do the same if not more work with less employees! That my friends is the main problem here. A lot of these major corporations are taking advantage of the job/labor market landscape of today. And let us not forget the benefits of this=BIGGER BONU$$$. THAT IS A FACT! AND YES, SAFETY IS THEN JEPORADIZED! Have YOU tried climbing poles, caring ladders, and going into manholes and at the same time being called by your supervisor (who is being called by his/her supervisor) asking why it is taking you so long to do a job oh and by the way you still have more work to do? So unless you are doing it then please do not comment on it because you REALLY don't know what you are talking about! | |
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