CWA District 9/AT&T West
Bargaining Bulletin #23
Friday, March 27, 2009

1 Union 1 Fight 1 Future

Subcommittee meetings continued in an effort to resolve issues around Article 7 and work rules/appendices. At the end of the day we have little progress and a lot of frustration. In Formal session we rejected the company’s proposal on Sunday premium Pay. We proposed a Successorship clause, which would require a new owner to recognize the Union and either honor our existing Contract or bargain new terms in the event of a sale of the company. Absent an agreement the current economic benefits would continue. The Company opened with a statement that their proposals would reflect the current economic situation and their need for cutting costs. They rejected our proposal on Job Upgrades. They presented a revised proposal on Health and Welfare, that still does not contain costs but shifts them to our members. They also proposed to eliminate the team award. The company’s final proposal of the day was on wage increases and lump sum payments. They proposed a Lump sum of 1.5% of an employee’s weekly rate in 2009 and 2010. Then wage increases of 2% at top step for 2011, 2012 and 2013 for a 5 year contract. As if we would want 5 years of this! These offers are insulting and disappointing as they show the company does not value our members’ contributions to their profits and success.
8 days and counting…

IN UNITY,
Lupe Mercado
Bill Demers
Pam Suniga
Art Gonzalez
Tom Runnion
William B. Harvey

CWA District 9/AT&T West
Bargaining Bulletin #22
Thursday, March 26, 2009

1 Union 1 Fight 1 Future

Subcommittee meetings resumed today in a continued effort to resolve the issues around Article 2 and Memorandums of Agreement. The formal session began with CWA Bargaining Chair Tom Runnion reading from Washington MarketWatch that AT&T is viewed as a safe vessel, a place for investors to stash cash and ride out the latest market storm. He also added that in the view of many Wall Street analysts AT&T seems more like the Queen Mary 2, the world’s largest ocean liner and not like a modern-day Titanic. Its declining wire line has shown signs of stabilizing after a rough patch in 2008. Barring an outright economic collapse, analysts insist the company can not only maintain its current dividend, now yielding above 7% but perhaps even raise it again in the future. As waves of bad corporate and economic news sink values of one blue-chip company after another, among the few that continue to steam ahead is AT&T inc. Tom reiterated the Union maintains that this is a highly profitable company and our members deserve and expect a fair contract and to benefit from the current and future profits. With that said, we rejected the company retrogressive proposals on the Premises Technician, “Leveraged title”, sickness absence pay, FMLA time, and overtime. The Union then passed two proposals. The first proposed that the company join the Union for National Health Care Reform. The second, on Evolving Technologies, proposed that CWA core contracts cover all work resulting from new technological developments. This would include Network operations, customer service activities, technical support, customer premise work, and connect tech work. The Company had nothing to offer today.
9 days and counting…

IN UNITY,
Bill Demers
Pam Suniga
Art Gonzalez
Tom Runnion
William B. Harvey
Lupe Mercado