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17,000 AT&T Workers Go On Strike In California and Nevada (fortune.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the serious-labor-action dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fortune: Approximately 17,000 workers in AT&T's traditional wired telephone business in California and Nevada walked out on strike on Wednesday, marking the most serious labor action against the carrier in years. The walkout -- formally known as a grievance strike -- occurred after AT&T changed the work assignments of some of the technicians and call center employees in the group, the Communications Workers of America union said. The union would not say how long the strike might last. A contract covering the group expired last year and there has been little progress in negotiations over sticking points like the outsourcing of call center jobs overseas, stagnant pay, and rising health care costs. The union said it planned to file an unfair labor charge with the National Labor Relations Board over the work assignment changes. "A walkout is not in anybody's best interest and it's unfortunate that the union chose to do that," an AT&T spokesman told Fortune. "We're engaged in discussion with the union to get these employees back to work as soon as possible."

16 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Baby Goes Whaaaaaaaa! by sexconker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A walkout is not in anybody's best interest and it's unfortunate that the union chose to do that

    I'm generally anti-union because they almost always devolve into pieces of shit, but fuck AT&T and fuck the obvious bullshit line about a strike not being in anyone's best interest. It's in the best interest of the union (and hopefully of the employees).

    1. Re:Baby Goes Whaaaaaaaa! by sit1963nz · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Many years ago I belonged to a Union.
      In its rules was the cause that we could NOT go on strike. The employer could not do a lock out.

      What took it's place was that any negotiations over pay and conditions that could not be resolved in 12 weeks would be taken to an independent Arbiter. That arbiter was a member of the judiciary, their job was not influenced by elections, employer payments, etc etc etc

      Both sides put their final offer to the arbiter and defended it, justifying why their position was the most fair and reasonable. There arbiter required proof of any claims, and that could include looking at the employers books.

      The arbiter could then take a further 2 weeks and choose EITHER the union OR the employer offer. No chasing bits from one and bits from another, they had toe make a choice which offer was the most reasonable. And that decision was binding on both parties

      This forced both sides to start from a position of reason right from the start and most negotiations took less then 3 weeks to negotiate and ratify.

      Sadly that union was consumed by a larger union and all that went away.

    2. Re:Baby Goes Whaaaaaaaa! by buss_error · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I remember when President Reagan fired the Air Traffic Controllers. That didn't work out well for more than a year.

      I have also been a union member twice. Unfortunately, one union was run by the company, so it was a pretty shitty union for the most part. The other union was run by ex-union members and were not beholden to the company. That worked pretty well in that "silly" stuff didn't happen. If a shitty boss wanted to fire people for not kowtowing, too bad. But if someone screwed up, the shop steward and the boss delivered the pink slip together. Nobody wanted to do extra work because someone else slacked their assignment. I eventually went management in that job, and I never had a problem in 6 years with union workers. I generally had to hold back the shop steward when I knew things about the employee that he didn't (terminally ill wife, child, substance problems they were being helped with, that sort of thing.) The times I did have to terminate someone, the union guys were in agreement with me and we'd already tried multiple times to get the person back into the fold.

      That said, what strikes me are the many people that say "Unions suck" that have never been in one and how frequently the throw out "get another job".

      Hm. You must live in the land of good jobs, where the trees of excellent education are right there behind the bushes of golden opportunity and the river of endless paycheck. That's a sweet place to live, but one whose address I've not found.

      --
      Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
    3. Re: Baby Goes Whaaaaaaaa! by Highdude702 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Im a non union electrician for a reason, i may make a lot less but the unions out here promote laziness and shitty work. if you get thrown off of one job, they send you to another, tossed off that one, on to another. as long as you pay union dues they dont really give a fuck. thats not my style. as i said i do electrical work. peoples lives are at stake. i will not be responsible for stupidity.

    4. Re:Baby Goes Whaaaaaaaa! by sit1963nz · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not in New Zealand.

      Our Judges are not elected, nor government appointed. They either put their name forward themselves or the firms they work for nominates them. However the MUST have a law degree, must have at least 7 years experience as a practicing lawyer, and they get chosen based on their work experience, character , social awareness, fairness etc etc etc by the Attorney-General's Judicial Appointments Unit.

      Our civil service is also non partisan, senior appointments are not political appointments and dont change when there is a change in government.

      Equally our news media is less partisan then US media, and it has been rated as far more free (as in free speech) than US media too.

      New Zealand is also one of the least corrupt countries in the world, the lack of political interference in the courts, police, civil service may also account for this.

    5. Re:Baby Goes Whaaaaaaaa! by Uberbah · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nobody wanted to do extra work because someone else slacked their assignment.

      That's the central flaw in the "unions protect the lazy" canard. It's predicated on the idea that Steve is happy to do his own work plus Bob's if Bob starts to slack off. Human beings simply aren't built that way, unless they're in a Biff Tannen/George McFly relationship - in which case Biff could just as easily having George do his work at a non union shop anyway.

  2. Re:100% of landline customers affected by strike by bobdehnhardt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Worst case scenario for the unions: what if nobody really notices?

  3. Re:We'll see what Trump does by TroII · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well he campaigned on the idea of giving power back to the people, so if he were an honest man, he'd be on the workers'/union's side here. However it's quite obvious that he's the biggest, greatest liar in the world, as well as being a traditional conservative corporate whore, so he's going to be on AT&T's side.

    --
    "If there was a gay Afro-Puertorican Linux distribution, I'd give it a try" ~lucm
  4. Support the Union by sdinfoserv · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not a member of a union, and used to be anti-union, but the destruction of unions paves the way to total employee exploitation. Notice that pay has been flat for years, but for Corporate AT&T in 2016:
    *Consolidated revenues of $40.5 billion, up more than 22%
    *Operating income up 13.6%
    *Net income up 10.6%
    *Cash from operations of $10.3 billion, up 12.5%
    *Free cash flow of $4.8 billion, up 8.4%
    *Diluted EPS of $0.55 as reported and $0.72 diluted adjusted EPS compared to $0.59 and $0.70 in the year-ago quarter.
    All the while the workers get no increases. Every single worker in the US (outside of a few high pay tech positions) is suffering due to corporate greed. A few people at the top have received all the increases for all the productivity gains since the 1980s. If you care about what this country will look like for your kids, you really should care about this. The reality is, you are likely not someone at the top.

    1. Re:Support the Union by sit1963nz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      See, when I complained how Apple was able to sort the New Zealand tax system the people from the USA were unsympathetic.

      "Change the laws" they said
      "It will only increase the price of Apple products" others said
      "The government has no rights to Apples money" yet more people said

      Well here we are now in the USA, with US workers complaining.
      The same basic sentiments apply by the looks of it.

      The only people entitled to make more money is "not you", and Trump is not going to change that.

    2. Re:Support the Union by sdinfoserv · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Profit for a company in the form of reduced benefits is off the backs of the workers
      C-Levels continually get raises, golden parachutes, and lucrative stock options paid for the by the workers of the company who are only rewarded with less vacation, more expensive health care, lower bonus, and decreasing or no annual raises - and you want to call it "other peoples money".... I say their fair share was stolen.

    3. Re:Support the Union by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This country is running trade deficits because manufacturing jobs have been shoved overseas

      Nope. America manufactures more today than ever before. We just do it with a lot fewer people. The main reason for the trade deficit is that America controls the world's reserve currency, which is a GOOD THING.

      Foxconn, the Chinese company ...

      Foxconn is not a Chinese company.

      Children are chained to desks

      All the evidence for that was part of a hoax. There is no credible evidence that anyone at Foxconn was ever physically restrained at their desk, and they do not employ children.

      Now, if that's the world you want here in the US ...

      You mean the world of "alternative facts?" We already have that.

  5. Re:100% of landline customers affected by strike by Altus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Then clearly the companies shouldn't be employing any of them... which is fine, but probably not the case since companies are pretty slick when it comes to figuring out if they still need employees and cutting down labor costs if the answer is "no" so really this is just about your hatred of unions because you know damn well that if these people weren't needed the company would have laid them off a long time ago

    --

    "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

  6. Re:100% of landline customers affected by strike by WheezyJoe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yep. Boss Trump is rallying the fans in Kentucky, promising to bring back coal jobs. Or, at least, bring back coal by letting up on silly environmental rules like the Stream Protection Rule.

    Trouble is, giving coal companies a break doesn't necessarily mean good things for coal miners. Like everyone else, coal companies are heavily investing in automation and mining techniques that require fewer pesky workers. At the same time, strip-mining and poisoning the water and the land makes it suck worse to live in coal country, either as a miner or even as a crazed live-off-the-land survivor type.

    Further, Trump is a big friend of fracking, which lowers the price of natural gas, which, like, lowers the demand for coal. Uhhh, right.

    My guess is there's gonna be a lot of disappointed folks in coal country in a coupla years when the jobs don't come and Trumpcare takes over. Maybe by then AT&T will be hiring scabs to replace all the folks on strike. Can you run some fiber before that black lung gits ya, or will the heavy metals in the frogs and the river trout git ya first?

    --
    Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
  7. and the Aliens Go Whaaaaaaaa? by WheezyJoe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Alas, as the aliens observing us reluctantly realize, humans have short memories. Like environmental laws, civil rights (and even... democracy), collective bargaining came about because our great-grandparents went through hella crazy Pinkerton shit, and our grandparents stood up and got shot until they managed to force change. But alas, our grandparents died off and our parents grew up not knowing what the fuck, and anyway global markets came along so that everything is cheap in China, and now the politicians are telling us that the only thing between us and a trophy wife and the top-floor suite of the Trump Hotel is unions and job-killing environment and food-inspection laws.

    and the aliens say, isn't that the shit these creatures fought so hard for just a few generations ago?

    --
    Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
  8. Re:Too bad Muslim terrorists don't go on strike by sit1963nz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Murder rate
    UK 0.9/100,000
    Canada 1.5/100,000
    Germany 0.9/100,000
    France 1.2/100,000
    New Zealand 0.9/100,000
    Australia 1.0/100,000
    Spain 0.7/100,000
    China 0.8/100,000
    Japan 0.3/100,000
    Italy 0.8/100,000
    Sweden 0.9/100,000
    Iceland 0.3/100,000

    And the site I am looking at says the USA is 3.9/100,000 which puts it 108th out of 218 countries
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Almost half the countries in the world are safer than the USA.


    And the US imprisonment rate is nearly 700/100,000
    Canada 114/100,000
    Germany 78/100,000
    France 103/100,000
    New Zealand 202/100,000
    Australia 152/100,000
    Spain 131/100,000
    China 118/100,000
    Japan 47/100,000
    Italy 89/100,000
    Sweden 53/100,000
    Iceland 45/100,000

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    So yeah, most countries could indeed be safer if they kept americans out, they seem to have a high rate of crime and murder compared to other 1st world civilised countries. That wall is looking better and better, not to keep Mexicans out, but to keep Americans in, Canada should take a close look at this, who knows maybe they can get the US to pay.