AT&T Southeast Bargaining Report #62

AT&T Southeast Bargaining Report #62

Brothers and sisters, your District 3 bargaining team wants to make sure you have the facts and know the truth about what is happening between us and the company at the bargaining table.  The company's "Latest News" is such a serious misrepresentation of their so-called "final offer" that it's almost funny.  Of course, it's not funny, it's serious and just another example of the company's sad attempt to fool our members into believing that it cares about its workers.  Brothers and sisters, if you take away anything from the company's propaganda, it's this: the company only cares about its shareholders and its bottom line.  It doesn't care about its customers, it doesn't care about its service, and it damn sure doesn't care about its employees.   

Here are some important facts about the bargaining process, the company's so-called "final offer", and what the company really is trying to shove down your throat:

• It's clear that the company would rather send misinformation to our members in the field than to bargain with us at the table.  We were scheduled to meet with the company in the morning on Wednesday, Sept. 4.  Instead of meeting with our bargaining team, AT&T kept us waiting until 6:00 pm, in order to give us what they are calling their "final offer". 
• The fact is, the so-called "final offer" isn't even a final offer: when the company presented it to us last night, they said they understood they had to continue bargaining with us.  True to our word that we would be ready to meet at any time, we met with the company to give them a counteroffer at 11:00 pm last night.
• The company wants you to believe that CWA "fired the mediator."  What we did is tell the company and the mediator that AT&T was taking advantage of the mediator and abusing the mediation process as a stall tactic.  The company used mediation to stop bargaining with us, wasting our time and the mediator's.  We withdrew from mediation to get bargaining going again, the way it has to be done: across the table with the company.
    

Perhaps most important, brothers and sisters, is that you can't be fooled by the company's propaganda about what they are proposing at the table. They are giving you half-truths about what they have put on the table and trying to fool you into believing how generous they are.  Here are some facts about that the so-called "final offer" from AT&T includes:

• It is CWA that proposed upgrading the wage zones for Wire Techs and all other employees.  The company refused to even consider our proposal to upgrade wage zones for Wire Techs until we had been on strike for more than two weeks. The company continues to refuse giving Wire Techs in Zone A any sort of wage increase outside of the general wage increase.
• The company wants to begin forcing Wire Techs to work overtime and then cancel their regular shifts. For example, if you work 4 hours late on Monday and Tuesday, the company will cancel your 8 hour shift on Wednesday. The end result - the overtime you worked is stolen from you!
• The average $40,000 of additional cumulative wages advertised in the company's report is misleading.  Under the company's "final offer", a Wire Tech in Zone A, by 2029, will receive a wage increase of only $3.66 per hour.
• The company's proposed new prescription plan, eliminates prescription copayments with fixed prices, thereby shifting enormous prescription costs to employees.
• The company's proposed Option 1 Family health insurance premiums increase by $1,368 per year. Option 2 Family plan in-network Annual Deductibles are doubled, increased from $3,300 to $6,600. Option 2 Family plan in-network Max Out of Pocket increase by $2,500 per year, up to $16,000 annually.
• CWA proposed pension increases for employees hired after 2009.  AT&T's final offer includes no pension increases for any employee hired after 2009.
• The company's final offer cuts termination pay by more than 1/2 from 90 weeks to 40 weeks. 
   

Here's a perfect example of the real math in the company's "final offer", not AT&T fuzzy math, using a Wire Tech's in Zone A, who make $59,072 today:

Based on the company's so-called "final offer" (which they acknowledge is not a final offer), that Wire Tech would make $69,638 in 2029, a difference of  $10,566 (not $40,000).  But the company's proposed increase to the Option 2 Family Health Insurance Annual Deductible would cost that Wire Tech an additional $3,300 in 2029, and the company's proposed increase to the Option 2 Family Health Insurance Annual Max Out of Pocket would cost that Wire Tech an additional $2,500 in 2029.  After factoring in those health care increases, that Wire Tech actually nets a total increase of only $4,766.  That brothers and sisters, is a lot less than the $40,000 advertised by AT&T.