Where is the tangible evidence of the “values and ethic's” touted by AT$T’s Common Bond? What we see is a systematic Nationwide Corporate effort to destroy our Collective Bargaining. The pattern is clear: AT$T is contracting out work, sending jobs overseas, merging job titles, and implementing unreasonable productivity standards. Where is our job security? The result is an erosion of the American workforce and economic infrastructure in our communities. The only thing AT&T offers us is Common Bondage, we stay because we force the company to give us decent wages and benefits.
Our Common Bond is the history of the Labor movement. Those who came before us sacrificed their time, lost money in long strikes, endured beatings and sometimes made the ultimate sacrifice; that of their lives. All of this was to assure better life for their children – our children. The labor laws that protect us today such as an eight hour day, five day work-week, child labor laws, the right to form a Union and myriad of other things we have come to take for granted were hard fought by those who came before us.
In 1890, when the government first tracked worker’s hours, the average workweek for full-time manufacturing employees was 100 and 102 hours for building tradesmen. On August 20, 1866, the National Labor Union, made up of skilled and unskilled workers, farmers, and reformers, called on Congress to order an eight-hour workday. Little progress was made in establishing an eight-hour workday until 1933. During this year, Congress passed the National Industrial Recovery Act, an emergency measure taken by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression. The Act provided for the establishment of maximum hours, minimum wages, and the right to collective bargaining (allowing unions to represent their members in negotiations with an employer). The Recovery Act was soon replaced by the Wagner Act, which assured workers the right to form unions. It was not until the 1950s that most workers gained the eight-hour workday. This, brothers and sisters, is our Common Bond.
It is impossible to satisfy Corporate Greed, so our struggle will never be over. But as long as we stay unified and stand up for our rights, we can prevail as those who came before us. The Company may change their name but they will never change their ways. Our bosses may come and go but we will always be here standing up for decent wages, benefits and working conditions. We don’t expect them to do the right thing, but though our collective strength we can force them to.
In Unity There Is Strength, This Is Our Common Bond. |
