Although a company can set forth rules that guide the operations of their business, the guidelines that they set forth are often unclear and imposed arbitrarily throughout the work force. For example, instead of using a rational and objective approach to individual instances, the company will arbitrarily resort to zero tolerance applications that equate to nothing more then applying the rules with zero brains. Their rules are imposed as a method of control and intimidation of the work force; it is more accurate to call them the Common Bondage.
 
Where does AT&T’s Common Bond tout the tangible evidence of the “values”? What we see is a systematic Nationwide Corporate effort to destroy our Collective Bargaining rights.  The pattern is clear; over the years AT&T has contracted out our work, sent jobs overseas, merged job titles, and implemented unreasonable productivity standards.  Where is our job security?  The result has been 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 our unity has forced 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 a 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 work week for full-time manufacturing employees was 100 hours 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 their 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 often 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 through our collective strength we can force them to. Our contract expires 2009, only when we speak with one collective voice does the company hear us and concede to our demands.
 
In Unity There Is Strength, This Is Our Common Bond.
 
Roy Hegenbart
President
Local 3250