Entries from February 2009 ↓

[/caption]

CWA Bargaining Chair Tom Runnion, committee members William Harvey 9415, Lupe Mercado 9421, Bill Demers 9400, Pam Suniga 9416 and Art Gonzalez 9511.

ATT Bargaing chair Doug Flores, committe members Bob Kelly, Joann Chan, Jennifer Mulcahey and Jennifer Luttrell.

[/caption]

Our bargaining committee names in order from left to right

William Harvey 9415, Bill Demers 9400, Lupe Mercardo 9421, Tom Runnion District 9, Pam Suniga 9416 and Art Gonzalez 9511.

Bargaining between Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 9 and AT&T West, formally started today.  CWA Bargaining Committee Chair Tom Runnion started the session with opening remarks, which set the tone for this round of bargaining .  Company Chairperson Doug Flores made opening remarks   for the Company outlining the perceived challenges for the Company in the areas of health care costs,  the need for flexibility and the financial challenges the Company faces due to the economy and competition.

CWA OPENING STATEMENT

Today CWA and AT&T come together to begin negotiations at a time when our Countries economy is shaky but the Companies profits are up. AT&T is a Fortune 10 corporation with the means to provide decent wages and benefits to our members. AT&T is a $150 Billion corporation that made $12.9 billion in profits last year. The Company has an expectation of double digit growth in revenues for the next year. Our Country in this economic time needs profitable companies such as AT&T to do the right things. We need these companies to grow not to scale back. President Barack Obama just signed the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act”. The act provides for 7.2 Billion to increase the deployment and adoption of High Speed Internet access. We need AT&T to build out that infrastructure that will bring high speed internet access to all Americans and those jobs to be, Union jobs, in California and Nevada. This is not a time for healthy profitable companies to back away from growth or to try to diminish workers pay and benefits. It is a time for AT&T to join with CWA for Health Care reform not to shift the cost to our members or retirees. It is a time to remember past commitments and not turn away from them. CWA will not let AT&T forget it was the retirees that helped build this Company and AT&T made commitments to them. CWA members are the ones that make this Company profitable and expect a fair share of that profit. We come here to bargain a Fair and Just contract that meets both parties’ needs and that our members would be proud to ratify.

WE WANT TO THANK ALL WHO PARTICIPATED IN TODAYS MOBILIZATION ACTIVITIES IT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!

IN UNITY,

Tom Runnion

William B. Harvey

Lupe Mercado

Bill Demers

Pam Suniga

Art Gonzalez

All six of the AT&T “core” bargaining committees met in St. Louis to strategizetogether before bargaining opens on Feb. 24, 2009
http://www.cwa-union.org/att/news/att-bargaining-teams.html

At the start of our contract campaign we distributed small red CWA buttons so members in every workplace could show solidarity with each other and with the bargaining team.

An Open Letter to Mobility Orange Employees from Bill Bates, CWA Bargaining Committee Chair

Mobilization activities have been building steadily over the past few weeks as members throughout CWA stand with AT&T Mobility members in our campaign for a quality contract.

Reports are coming in from weekend mobilization activities – lots of energy and enthusiasm around visits to the retail stores, with CWAers reminding customers that AT&T Mobility employees provide quality service customers expect and want.

Most of you have seen the “highlight document” that was posted by management about its final offer at the bargaining table late Saturday night.

AT&T members will be mobilizing this weekend, showing their support for our contract campaign at Mobility.