From day one of these negotiations we have been clear with the Company that your number one issues are Employment Security and Healthcare.
During our last few sessions with the Company we made several attempts to get the Company to understand that Job Security and Healthcare are among the most important issue to us in this round of bargaining. Many of our open issues are very important. However, these are two that affect all of us today as well as in the future.
We met and went through the open issues that are most important to each side; we had open conversation and tried to fundamentally narrow the scope of issues in front of us. It became clear that the Company kept side-stepping employment security (our watermark) with the hopes that we would keep giving into their regressive demands. While we have no problem with open conversations in an effort to move the ball down the court, we are not interested in bargaining against ourselves or diminishing this agreement as a whole!
It is imperative that we stop the Company from moving jobs out of our bargaining unit and make them accountable to the commitments they have made publically regarding the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, which realized them BILLIONS of new dollars.
Randall Stephenson said for every Billion Dollars they would make 7,000 hard hat jobs, paying $70,000 to $80,000 per year.
They got their tax cut and all they have done is diminish our work force ever since.
We cannot accept this any longer, so we have sent our committee home to their respective locations to ramp up Mobilizations and are increasing the pressure politically as well as publicly.
Now is the time to let AT&T know that we are not going to stand by while they kill our jobs. We expect them to do the right thing and add jobs, as well as take care of the folks who built this place.
We are as always prepared to meet with the Company. However, until the Company is prepared to meet with us with an open mind, we believe it’s going to be very hard to find a way to a tentative agreement.
We remain committed to getting a fair and just contract. We need all of our Members to turn up the Mobilizations and let AT&T know we are not going to take their final offer!
In Solidarity
Your Bargaining Committee
Ken Saether
Mary Ellen Mazzeo
Roy Hegenbart
LaNell Piercy
Mike Lewis
Cindy Neumeyer
MOBILIZE MOBILIZE MOBILIZE
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E-mail: cwamobilization2018@gmail.com, with photos from your Mobilization actions.