As 17,000 AT&T Workers Strike, Some Customers Experience 'Prolonged' Outages (newsobserver.com) 40
17,000 AT&T workers from the CWA union went on strike Friday.
NPR notes the strike affects workers in nine states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. A North Carolina newspaper says the union will remain on strike until they believe AT&T "begins to bargain over a new contract in good faith" after their previous contract expired back on August 3.
And meanwhile, their article notes that the strike comes as some AT&T customers in North Carolina's Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area "report prolonged internet outages." Saturday afternoon, AT&T also reported internet outages within a circle of northern Charlotte neighborhoods. "As far as the impact, the trained, experienced CWA members who are on strike do critical work installing, maintaining and supporting AT&T's residential and business wireline telecommunications network," CWA communications director Beth Allen said. "Customers should be aware that these workers will not be available to respond to service calls during the strike."
Since at least Wednesday, AT&T internet customers in Durham have reported being without residential service. According to the company's website, outages have been detected across a wide section of the city, including downtown and around Duke University.
AT&T has alerted some affected residents in southwest Durham their internet service "should be online" by Tuesday morning.
An AT&T spokesperson told the newspaper that "We have various business continuity measures in place to avoid disruptions to operations and will continue to provide our customers with the great service they expect."
A union executive said in a statement that AT&T's contract negotiators "did not seem to have the actual bargaining authority required by the legal obligation to bargain in good faith. Our members want to be on the job, providing the quality service that our customers deserve. It's time for AT&T to start negotiating in good faith so that we can move forward towards a fair contract."
And meanwhile, their article notes that the strike comes as some AT&T customers in North Carolina's Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area "report prolonged internet outages." Saturday afternoon, AT&T also reported internet outages within a circle of northern Charlotte neighborhoods. "As far as the impact, the trained, experienced CWA members who are on strike do critical work installing, maintaining and supporting AT&T's residential and business wireline telecommunications network," CWA communications director Beth Allen said. "Customers should be aware that these workers will not be available to respond to service calls during the strike."
Since at least Wednesday, AT&T internet customers in Durham have reported being without residential service. According to the company's website, outages have been detected across a wide section of the city, including downtown and around Duke University.
AT&T has alerted some affected residents in southwest Durham their internet service "should be online" by Tuesday morning.
An AT&T spokesperson told the newspaper that "We have various business continuity measures in place to avoid disruptions to operations and will continue to provide our customers with the great service they expect."
A union executive said in a statement that AT&T's contract negotiators "did not seem to have the actual bargaining authority required by the legal obligation to bargain in good faith. Our members want to be on the job, providing the quality service that our customers deserve. It's time for AT&T to start negotiating in good faith so that we can move forward towards a fair contract."
AT&T Is Happy to Screw Everyone (Score:5, Interesting)
As a long time customer of these scoundrels I have years of experience with AT&T charging more for less, letting capacity flounder, letting contracts expire, throttling internet,, shitty TV, satellite, always the stingiest deal around. I hate them, they suck as much Comcast and Ticketmaster May they twist and turn and burn.
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The CWA and AT&T seem to be in disagreement about maintaining the critical infrastructure during the strike.
Internet access
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* An AT&T spokesperson told the newspaper that "We have various business continuity measures in place to avoid disruptions to operations and will continue to provide our customers with the great service they expect."
Business continuity measures == untrained salaried workers doing the job
I knew a project manager who worked at ATT as a strike was looming. Everyone physically capable of doing the labor-intensive work would be required to do so. Everyone else would be expected to work 80+ hour weeks at their current jobs, to pick up the slack.
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^^^ Exactly this
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Re: AT&T Is Happy to Screw Everyone (Score:2)
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Internet service id essential like electricity or water? Geezus. Kids today..
Yup. How else they gonna start their car in the morning or adjust their thermostat in their crackerbox apartment or order their favorite chai or bubble tea at the shoppe?
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My power, gas, and water bills are paid over the internet. The pharmacy has so thoroughly understaffed that refilling the prescription in advance over the internet is the only way to get needed prescriptions in a reasonable timeframe. After repeated stories about mail moving slowly due to problems at a local distribution center, I saw a news item (over the internet) of a postal worker that was dumping the mail in the woods so he would have time to pull over somewhere and do drugs. Many students receive and
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" We have various business continuity measures in place to avoid disruptions to operations and will continue to provide our customers with the great service they expect. "
So, I'll explain this statement for everyone.
" Various Business Continuity Measures " means the Company is pulling management employees who have zero experience or training in an attempt to fill the gaps by the non-management workforce that is currently on strike. It's akin to Steve over in Sales trying to do the job of Robert the Systems
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That's generally why there are two things - 1) linemen are paid extremely well (they better be - they're out in the heat and weather), and second is essential services. Basically if a powerline falls and leaves you without electricity, even during a strike those workers can be called to repair the line and get you going aga
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Re: AT&T Is Happy to Screw Everyone (Score:1)
The problem is the fact they canâ(TM)t replace you regardless of what you do, this leads to a bunch of valuable tradespeople that sit around and arenâ(TM)t being productive being a drag on not just the company but the entire economy. I donâ(TM)t care if you want to get together with your buddies and negotiate better wages, but there shouldnâ(TM)t be codified grifters.
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The Company has many methods at its disposal to rid itself of pretty much anyone it wishes irregardless if you're management
or Union.
Here are a few that have been used extensively:
1) Move the work. You can elect to follow the work in some cases but you'll have to uproot your family and move to another
city or State in order to do so. No guarantee they won't do it again within a year or two. The Company knows the vast
majority aren't going to move so they use this method as a me
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" It seems as though without a union it's just a matter of time before you find your job offshored and end up wishing you were had joined one. "
Bad news to report I'm afraid.
It doesn't matter if you're in the Union or not, we have Contract Labor sitting alongside Union workers doing the exact same job. ( Union = useless )
They have no clue what they're doing and they get zero training. ( Technically neither do the Union workers since it's been more than twenty
plus years since anyone has seen any formal trai
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Why is more money, same benefits/training a problem? We are not talking $5/hour more, we are talking $50/h more in many cases, the local union workers for electricians around here have an hourly range of $26–$36 and have to pay into their own benefits, pay union dues etc - the electrician that is privately hired ranges $50 to $130. Plenty of money to pay for your own benefits.
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As a long time customer of these scoundrels I have years of experience with AT&T charging more for less, letting capacity flounder, letting contracts expire, throttling internet,, shitty TV, satellite, always the stingiest deal around. I hate them, they suck as much Comcast and Ticketmaster May they twist and turn and burn.
So that's the fine experience you got from these union workers?
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who actually thinks union workers set the prices and service levels?
get a grip on reality.
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who actually thinks union workers set the prices and service levels?
Why don't you explain your own rhetorical insinuations because I have no clue what you think.
get a grip on reality.
As opposed to what? Your dividends?
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So that's the fine experience you got from these union workers?
That the fine experience of their employees which is why they are on strike. After all, employees are as exploited as everyone else they rip off.
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As a long time customer of these scoundrels I have years of experience with AT&T charging more for less, letting capacity flounder, letting contracts expire, throttling internet,, shitty TV, satellite, always the stingiest deal around. I hate them, they suck as much Comcast and Ticketmaster May they twist and turn and burn.
While what you say maybe was true, it no longer is true. Comcast is much better. I've bounced back and forth between AT&T and Comcast and have currently been on Comcast for the last 4 years because, well, here's why. I was pretty happy with AT&T in general in the previous decade except they kept charging me more and more every year. I did check Comcast and to get similar service, i couldn't really get anything cheaper from them. However, AT&T didn't know that. So I threatened to cance
Wouldn't want to be their office engineers (Score:3, Interesting)
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Yeah, the cable tv technicians, fiber repair technicians, power repairmen, and POTS telephone technicians all learned how to climb poles or use bucket trucks. Just because YOU don't know how to climb a pole doesn't make it a rare skill.
It's dangerous at best. CATV technicians generally don't use climbing boots BTW, they use extension ladders with a rope used to secure the ladder both from falling and from falling away from the pole. The insurance would cost more if they trusted them to do that. The utility doesn't want them doing it to their poles, either.
Cleaning the grease traps in a fast food restaurant is also a skill that you don't pick up overnight. It doesn't mean the skill demands a $50/hour salary.
Cleaning grease traps is minimally dangerous (don't eat it, you'll be OK) and can be done easily from the ground. That's not why we pay linemen well, to the extent that we even do that a
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That's Management shooting themselves in the foot. Sending untrained people to do hazardous work without proper safety training or PPE is a gigantic fine, and would most likely count as a willful violation.
Yes, up a ladder is by OSHA definition hazardous. Do you know the proper pre-use safety inspection rules for a ladder? Do you know the tie off requirements?
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Also, do you know what things up on the pole you should never touch? Which things you can't even get near?
No sympathy for the execs (Score:4, Funny)
Break all monopolies (Score:2)
The utility monopolies, even if that does mean multiple sets of wires.
The labor monopolies too. Why the fuck am I not allowed to work and get paid if 50%+1 of my coworkers decide to strike?
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Why the fuck am I not allowed to work and get paid if 50%+1 of my coworkers decide to strike?
Because after it you end up with your benefits protected and a higher take home wage that is adjusted for inflation.
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Why the fuck am I not allowed to work and get paid if 50%+1 of my coworkers decide to strike?
Because we've all agreed to follow a mutually negotiated set of rules around strikes, so that they don't get resolved by your employer hiring mercenaries to kill your coworkers' leadership, or by your coworkers tracking you down and beating you senseless for trying to help take away their childrens' medical care,
Re: Break all monopolies (Score:2)
Read: the mafia thugs and the communist pols they helped elect wrote the laws that say other people get to declare themselves as my legal representative and if I don't like it I can pound sand or get my legs broke.
Very progressive.
The more I read the history of the New Deal and the American labor movement the more glad I am that even in Liberal Massachusetts I can keep a gun in the house.
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At least until the utility monopolies are broken AND competition is well established, labor unions will be needed.
Realistically, even after that because there will always be less employers than employees, making it easier for the employer to get a new employee than it is for the employee to get a new employer.
The alternative is a whole lot of laws protecting employees so they don't need a union to keep working conditions, pay, and safety within reason.
Re: Break all monopolies (Score:2)
The answer to too few employers is to both up antimonopoly enforcement and to structure the tax code and regulatory environment to not favor consolidation of medium sized businesses into a small number of too big to fail behemoths.
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The labor monopolies too. Why the fuck am I not allowed to work and get paid if 50%+1 of my coworkers decide to strike?
I can only presume that it's because you, of your own free will, chose to take a job at a place that has that kind of relationships with unions. Non-union employees are free to keep working here. Are you looking for the government to intervene and outlaw the consequences of your actions?
ORLY? (Score:2)
An AT&T spokesperson told the newspaper that "We have various business continuity measures in place to avoid disruptions to operations and will continue to provide our customers with the great service they expect."
and
AT&T has alerted some affected residents in southwest Durham their internet service "should be online" by Tuesday morning.
There's a lie here somewhere. Either nobody has come to expect great service, or they have no effective business continuity.
Does anyone remember when networks strived for fine nines uptime and usually came pretty close?