South East Disconnect center work is being worked by contractors. What is the purpose of paying regular union dues if the union agreed to give more work away? Do they represent any of us or is there too many palms being greased?
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" When you say brought it to the Union, what does that mean exactly? "
It means he casually mentioned it to the fat loudmouthed guy that he thinks "might" be a shop steward, or an alternate, or something?
And that guy went on his 2 hour lunch and forgot about it.
That's what it means (probably).
Contracts are legal signed documents that was voted on and ratified, all parties have to adhere to the content unless there is a clause for ongoing bargaining. Even then it should be up to membership to vote for any changes that affects job security. A union official can’t just agree and make up changes as they go, without the members being involved, that would be a charge of not acting in good faith. Once again, consult an employment labor lawyer if you want of the clarification your contract if you aren’t getting answers from your local or the district.
It’s imperative that you file a grievance. I’ve never seen any contract articles stating that the company can use contractors on a specific project that is a bargained union job, there are job titles and a detailed job descriptions for the work. Only thing they can use is term employees and that is only temporary before they have to make them permanent. Appears you have union official that needs to read the contract and I would definitely go above their head. I’ve seen the contract misinterpreted a few times in my career by a “union official”. It doesn’t make any sense for them to give work away and sure doesn’t benefit current or future union members.
Clarification.
You are correct. The contractors are paid a higher base wage ( 100k+ range ) than we are, but the Company is not providing other benefits to them. ( Healthcare ) I believe a percentage of their pay goes to the Contracting Company as well. Their contract is only guaranteed for three months after which they can be let go at any time. If they are let go, there is a six month waiting period before they can return.
We had a CWA Union rep, Company Labor Relations and HR on the call. We were told that as long as the contractors were being utilized only for a specific project ( that Union techs were doing previously ), that they were all ok with it. They emphasized that, while contractors were within the group, no one within the group could be subject to surplus.
( This project will take years, by the way, so it's not a short term thing )
Honestly, I don't know what to believe any more. They ( and the contracts ) say one thing, and they do another.
Unfortunately, due to the acquisitions of many RBOCs and other entities there is differences when it comes to job security between contracts. The “union” members need to fill out the forms about job security so their contract negotiators will focus on it during the next negotiations. One would think that CWA & IBEW would work towards combining contract negotiations instead of the many different dates and contracts.
@ Morpheus,
According to your comments, contractors are getting higher pay doesn’t paint the total picture. You have to compare the whole compensation package, the company wouldn’t be contracting if the expense was higher to do so, doesn’t make good business sense. Then again, neither did repeating the same acquisition mistakes over and over by leadership and BOD, definition of insanity! More debt than majority of countries, world wide.
Any violation of a contract it is imperative that a grievance is filed and followed to its conclusion. The “Union” has to represent any members grievance and the said member doesn’t have to settle if they don’t agree with a lower level meeting outcome but can move it along to the next step, don’t be bullied. After exhausting your contractual grievance procedures, if you still think the company is in violation of the contract. seek outside counsel. There are lawyers and networks who specialize in employment and labor laws/contracts. At that point for this issue, don’t expect any help from your local reps because they are concerned with lawsuits being brought against them.
Take action and good luck!
When you say brought it to the Union, what does that mean exactly? If you think the company in violation of your contract, file a grievance, call your union state rep and district officer. I’ve proven my local president’s interpretation of the contract was incorrect more than once, had to contact the State rep and district office for clarification.
Doesn’t make sense for CWA to allow non union members take contracted jobs titles work. When you say Labor, does that mean company HR because they are going to side with the company until someone files a grievance and it gets settled. If you meant Dept. of Labor, then there must have been a ruling or arbitration hearing to come to that conclusion. If so it can be a point of contention in your next contract negotiations.
I'm wondering what the point is of folks paying Union Dues considering my group is working alongside contractors doing the same job. ( They are allowed to WFH and are higher paid to boot )
When it was brought to Labor and the Union, they were both perfectly happy with it so thinking the Union is going to do anything about it is a waste of time for anyone considering going to the Union with it.
One item that was mentioned earlier ( and downvoted for some reason ) is the fact normal employees are shielded from layoffs / surplus as long as contractors are working within the group. In other words, as long as the contractors are still on the payroll within the group, no regular employee within said group can be surplussed.
Take that with a grain of salt though since I was under the impression that contractors were not allowed to do Union work in the first place, yet, here we are :|
Has anyone filed a grievance or called the District office. I see most post on this thread are by company trolls with a lot of misinformation and trying to promote union busting. In Atlanta Union 3204 the company was trying to use contractors for wireless technician work. A group grievance was filed and 2 Union VP’s met with the 1st line and AM, discussed the issue and took notes so if any future violations happens again they will file with the appropriate govt. agencies. Job security matters, be proactive.
Message for you company trolls; Train up for your upcoming contingency assignments, your health may depend on it, climbing, traffic, weather and outages are waiting on you. Ever been involved in 911, FAA isolations, massive outage or storm related damage? Let’s see how fast you meet the deadline, like some of you are so fond of saying. Give me a break, it’s skilled work, not your job of answering emails, being on weekly calls, checking dashboard and approving time reports.
Most the contracts have provisions that prohibit the layoff or part-timing of represented employees if there are contractors doing the same work. So, these contractors serve as a kind of layoff buffer.
The big unions, Teamsters, Retail Clerks, Iron workers, etc., have organized crime influence and control no doubt. CWA basically has the same thing only the organized crime comes from within AT&T. The T management controls and influences CWA rendering the union powerless! There you have it in a nutshell! Dues for nothing but grief!
What planet were you born on? CWA has never had your back. They're only interested in collecting union dues and they guard that money like their life depends on it. Try to take out any union benefits that cost money and they'll stonewall you at every turn.
CWA fighting for the AT&T workers.
Just wait for the next union contract. UAW got the workers improved conditions and 25% raise over the time of contract. I suspect the CWA will get about half what UAW got
The “ manager” who preferred contractors post sounds like the marketing department of contractor company as a reason to hire them. It also highlights they weren’t very good at their sole function of managing employees.
Well even if the due dates were missed it was done right. I remember the old copper world. Never had to tone out pairs to find out where in the he-l the dial tone would show up in the cross box or have a tone put on at the CO. Just the money saved in toner batteries alone made up for the expense in the missed dates.
When I managed techs I asked if they wanted the work and could complete job by deadline date offered by contractor. Of course the techs said they would and failed at meeting deadline. So moving forward I would go to contractors firsts since I knew the job would get completed on time. Contractors get paid for work completed whereas techs get paid regardless.
someone was offered a kickback they couldn't refuse
Got out after 20 years! Best decision I’ve made here at T. CWA is a fund raiser not a labor saver!
You are not required to pay union dues to be treated like cr-p by the union. You are finding out exactly how much you are valued by your representatives.
District 6 contracted out the drop bury crew and lineman almost 30 years ago. Last I checked southeast still has this work.
The primary function of the CWA is a fundraiser for the democrats. It is not to represent labor.
They’re worried about their own job, not yours.
It never ceases to amaze me there are so many that still believe that CWA has any say in any of that stuff.
I am starting to suspect that some of the union leaders are really persons working for management who have infiltrated the union.
We have the wrong leaders in our union who are weak and why so many jobs are outsourced regularly at att.