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The first CWA AT&T Corp. Bargaining Council Meeting was held in St. Louis, Missouri on December 9 – 11, 2007. Over 500 CWA delegates, representing bargaining unit members at AT&T Corp including AT&T Legacy T, SBC, Ameritech, PacTel, SNET, BellSouth, AT&T Internet Services, and AT&T Mobility were in attendance.
The agenda included presentations by the CWA Research Department. They provided attendees with information on today’s bargaining climate in the Telecom, Auto, Steel, Airline and Trucking Industries, and presented a current Overview of the Telecom Industry. CWA District 7 Vice President Annie Hill also offered delegates information on the CWA National Campaign on Health Care For All.The conference meetings were chaired by Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach.
The CWA 2008 campaign is geared to enact comprehensive healthcare reform to control costs and to guarantee all Americans coverage. Local 3250 will be sending out this information to our DR’s and Stewards to review and post on Union bulletin boards in the workplace and will be keeping our members’ informed as we progress to bargaining in 2009.
Lastly, a “roadmap exercise” to determine CWA’s future plan and strategy for 2009 AT&T Corp bargaining was conducted in an open session for all 500+ delegates. During subsequent debate, Local delegates voiced opposition to the new Memorandum of Agreements (MOA’s) on the Premise Technician and Commission-Based Sales Representative Job Titles recently negotiated by CWA Districts 1, 4, 6, 9 and IBEW
NOTE: To date, ONLY CWA District 3 Local presidents have rejected the Premise Technician MOA. They overwhelmingly rejected the MOA because it includes two-tier wages and no pensions or after employment benefits for all new hires in the effected titles.
Intense debate also occurred regarding the movement of AT&T Corp. work between various CWA Contracts resulting in violations of existing contracts between CWA bargaining units. This is a major concern of Local Presidents and will be pursued until we are assured that it will be a national bargaining issue.
In summary, CWA National leaders and Local delegates have yet to agree upon a structure for an AT&T Corp contract bargaining in 2009. It is a fact that AT&T has been put back together again and is just another faceless and soulless corporate giant. Their only loyalty is lining their greedy pockets from the sweat of their employees. Therefore, CWA must demand one National table for all AT&T Corp. Bargaining Unit Contracts in 2009 so we can establish a bargaining strategy that will leave no members’ concerns unaccounted for.
The National Table should negotiate items such as:
All Jobs and Job Movement between the various CWA and IBEW Collective Bargaining Agreements and resolution of disparities in Pensions, Healthcare and the Alliance For Employee Growth & Development in all current CWA/AT&T Contracts throughout the nation.
Local Tables would negotiate all other issues in their respective Contracts.
Today, AT&T Corp. is the largest union represented Company in the USA. Present CWA and IBEW National and Local leaders should be demanding that AT&T Corp improve pensions and after employment benefits in 2009, not agree to give back pension and after employment benefits for new hires in 2007 and the foreseeable future. These are benefits that brothers and sisters have struggled and sacrificed for in past contract negotiations. Although no one leader or representative has all the answers, the conference has opened a positive direction for us to work towards forming a bargaining agenda and strategy that will be collectively supported by all of our members. We exchanged many ideas and viewpoints during the conference and as we weigh and consider them in the months to come, it will help clarify what will be truly important to us in 2009. I believe we all left with a sense of direction and accomplishment as we started to define our approach to the challenges ahead.
We have much work ahead of us and the process of bringing all the collective bargaining units of AT&T together at this early date will only help energize our members support for the difficult tasks ahead. Our National Union is encouraging our involvement and is committed to establishing a bargaining strategy that will be in the best interests of all CWA Members at AT&T. Now we need to start mobilizing for our future so we can retain what we have gained in the past and continue our struggle to improve our wages, benefits, and working conditions for all CWA Members. Only with one voice will AT&T hear us. In Unity There Is Strength.
Roy Hegenbart
President
Local 3250
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