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Minneapolis AT&T Managers Are Out Of Control |
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Thursday, 19 January 2006 |
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Attention Brothers and Sisters, In Minneapolis, Local 7250 President, Shari Schalwig was suspended by the Minneapolis AT&T, District Manager for 10 days for engaging in a protected concerted activity. Every year on January 9th, Local 7250 Members wear black and distribute flyers commemorating one of their members who passed away. This is a day that the AT&T managers in Minneapolis would like to forget.
It was on that day in 2002 that AT&T sent home one of our brothers’, who was displaying behavior that was totally inconsistent with his normal demeanor and it was evident that he needed some medical counseling and assistance. Instead of AT&T notifying his emergency contact, Health Affairs, EAP, or even paramedics, they chose to send him home without any assistance or supervision. AT&T ignored the signs being displayed by a distressed employee, their plan for handling this situation was “out of sight, out of mind” and our brother was now sent out into the street without any support and with his family completely uninformed and unaware of his situation. Two weeks later, when the company had received no report from him and without any follow up, the company terminated him and the mismanagement plan of “out of sight, out of mind” continued. Later on, it was found that our brother had passed away and the company was then trying to keep his status as terminated to prevent his life insurance being paid to his survivors. This was later resolved by Local 7250 President, Shari Schalwig along with the CWA National, who prevailed at a pre-arbitration settlement with AT&T agreeing to change our brothers’ status from terminated to deceased. So, on January 9th, when Local 7250 President and mobilization committee members distributed memorial flyers for one of their members, reminding all that this must not be repeated in the future, the Minneapolis managers retaliated by suspending Local 7250 President Shari Schalwig for reminding them of their mismanagement tactics and lack of compassion for one of their employee’s. In Minneapolis, managers don’t want to be reminded of their involvement in this affair and it is obvious they are going to unjustly retaliate as they try and hide from the truth. It is extremely sad that our brother was not given an opportunity to receive the attention and help he needed, it is also sad that the company is now punishing a Local President and CWA activist for trying to prevent a reoccurrence by sharing truthful information with CWA members. This type of behavior by AT&T managers is not representative of management teams across the nation and I am glad to report that the AT&T managers within Local 3250 have displayed professional and compassionate treatment to our members. Here in our Local and across the nation, we have been able to work closely with AT&T managers when dealing with members who have had difficult and stressful situations face them in their lives. The behavior that the Minneapolis managers have displayed will not be tolerated by our CWA Members across the nation and the unjust suspension of Local 7250 President Shari Schalwig just compounds our outrage. To suspend a person for a protected concerted activity that was neither disruptive nor insubordinate is a blatant abuse of power by the Company. Minneapolis should live up to the Company’s code of treating all their employee’s ethically and admit their mistake by apologizing for their behavior to all the Members of CWA across the nation. Only then will they regain the respect of the rank and file for their treatment of our deceased brother and his family and their treatment of the activists at Local 7250. If you want to obtain additional information regarding this issue you can call 612-376-6011. I will keep you informed of any updates we receive regarding this tragedy of events in Minneapolis. In Unity there is strength. Roy Hegenbart President/Local 3250 |
