Vice President’s Report
Arbitration win at AT&T on the My Schedule tool.
The company argued they never had bidding by
seniority and also argued this tool did not circumvent hours by seniority, but
it did. We really didn’t have a whole lot of issues on this in our local, but
many locals did. Great win for our members at AT@T!
We
also have our first union rep at AT&T. His name is Ron Moran and his contact
number is 623-255-9976 for those of you who might want to chat with him.
At DEX One, the layoff of 95 Graphic Artists around
the District will continue through the end of September after negotiations have
failed with CWA.
The Company tried to offer “hush money” to CWA
in the form of more money for COBRA to have us stop our public campaign against
the outsourcing of more American jobs overseas. Needless to say, we do not
accept “hush money” for anything.
We
have one member facing layoff at the end of this month.
Unfortunately,
we have no open positions for him to fill at this point.
Qwest, as we all know, will soon become CenturyLink.
Things are pretty quiet for now, but we caution our members to not get too
comfortable.
Things will start changing as we get closer to
bargaining in 2012. Our
centers are protected for only one year after the merger.
We
all need to stay informed, show up to your unit meetings and get prepared for
what could be a tough contract to negotiate. We do know that CenturyLink has
many contracts out there in the areas which are union and will probably not be
in favor of one single contract. We also know they do not like to bargain
benefits and pensions.
Never
less, we do need to get better prepared this time and be ready to fight to keep
what we have.
Remember that many things we enjoy today are because
of the union members and the strikes it took to achieve.
Lest
We Forget!
January 21, 2011
Dex has just again notified us of their plan on outsourcing all the graphic work performed by CWA members through the region. At this point, the District has requested all the data necessary for the fight ahead to save this work. Conference calls begin this week to keep all locals updated on the progress of this issue. Our last two surpluses have been resolved with no layoffs. One employee got a new job and the other took VSPP.
Qwest merger with Century Link is working its way through the approval process and is in the stages of finalizing bottom tier managers. Century managers are having more site visits and meetings to look at jobs and processes in varying offices. With Phoenix becoming one of the headquarters, we have the chance of growing just as well as shrinking, but only time will tell. Something we can all do as members to help keep them thinking about growing this city is our diligence. Our diligence in being proud of our work, our diligence in coming to work and our diligence of giving 8 hours work for 8 hours pay. Somehow we have lost a little of that these days and the companies are looking at some of these components to look into our future. I have had more managers at the leadership level worried about attendance and unsatisfactory performance levels costing us future job opportunities. Do I always believe the rhetoric and scare tactics, no, but do I believe that centers with high attendance and bad performance can make a difference, yes, and its already happened in Phoenix before. Remember when we had an LPC, an RCMAC, English Collections and English Sales? I understand the way some of these centers operate make it very difficult on our members to feel good at coming into work. All we can do is our best and if they ignore the issues, then it’s on them. A wise leader once told me that they can run the business into the ground if they want to, let’s hope they don’t.
AT@T may still be doing some hiring. Watch their website for new class information. We are still waiting the arbitrators decision the on the scheduling tool so we will keep you posted when that decision is known. Remember that AT@T is still the only union represented cell phone company out there and we have a lot of reps eager for your business all over the valley and in northern AZ.
Your unit Area Vice Presidents are in the process of setting up the quarterly unit meeting. Please watch your bulletin boards for the date and plan on attending to get more information on your particular area.
December 1, 2010
At Qwest it looks as though we are headed into the last fazes of management appointments for the new company operations with Directors being next. Ever since this merger has started, nervousness of the managers has been growing. Management layoffs can happen daily and we remind them anytime we feel they are not working with CWA to resolve issues. Over the course of this year, our center folks have had very decent upper managers, except a couple, who have worked with us on many issues and kept the need to file grievances at a minimum. Most of our issues are still at the coach level and are actually being getting resolved at the Director level when we escalate. There have actually been several managers let go this year in a few different areas for doing things they were not suppose to be doing or not doing the job they were hired to do.
Our grievance levels in the centers are still minimal in the union/company relationship arena although we are still seeing performance discipline, but that too is not as prevalent as it was a couple of years back. Even in our Retail area, our leadership is good to work with and are in agreement the focus should be on training and retaining employees. The terminations have dramatically decreased and the coaches are getting better at helping instead of writing discipline.
We are still trying to get more of the HSI training in our Screening center. The company chose to start in Salt Lake as opposed to Phoenix due to the smaller number of people and they claim that Phoenix is still the worst in attendance and productivity. This remains an open item for the union.
AT&T is also getting better at helping our reps than administering discipline. The number of terminations has also decreased in our area.
The Scheduling Tool arbitration is still in progress. The last hearing dates were November 22nd and 23rd.
At Dex we had another surplus of 1 Co-op rep, which was already resolved with the addition of 5 new positions which support the Sales team. The surplused employee took one of these positions.
Please enjoy the upcoming holidays and always look at what you can do for those less fortunate. May your blessings be many.
In Unity,
Dave Wood
opeiu30
September 22, 2010
As we go into the last quarter of the year it’s important to remind our
membership of some of the things that we still have left to do.
In October, the rest of the country will be turning back their clocks and
employers will be negotiating with us the new tours which will be put out to the
membership. We want you to keep this in mind as you plan your life outside of
work. Please keep in mind that many employees have left the business, some more
than others, which could impact the tours the company uses and who can get what.
What you might have gotten last year could be different on what you get this go
around. Just something to start thinking about!
With this also brings the discussions and canvassing of next year’s vacation and
personal time. Many of our members don’t always schedule most of their allocated
time, keep in mind that when you don’t, you subject yourself to “demands of
service”, the favorite company line to keep you from being off. So if you are in
doubt whether you may need a certain day, book it if you can. You can always
cancel it.
Also, in October and early November we will be electing new Government.
Depending on where you sit politically it may or may not be important to you,
but for unions in this state it’s going to be very important. Legislation is
currently being drafted to target unions in this state. Keep in mind any losses
we take in the law, affects our strength at the bargaining table just as it
would when we gain better labor laws. So my message would be to be careful on
who you vote for as you just might be voting for someone who don’t care about
how you get your wages, pensions and affordable healthcare!
Holidays are around the corner and the need to help the under privileged is more
relevant than ever. Although we are not doing an actual gift drive for LCSA this
winter (we collected money in conjunction with our Back To School Drive this
past summer), we will certainly accept any gifts or cash that you may still want
to give this season. Please give your donations to your Area Vice President and
they we see that it gets to our folks at LCSA.
And last but not least, Halloween is almost here and the trick or treaters do
not always watch for cars when darting around the neighborhoods so please drive
with caution.
In unity,
Dave
opeiu30
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