Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

D3 gives up right away d9 can't count on them

What I experienced as a DT in the SE was the existing Uverse jobs had many wire tech trips that were no accessed because it was too much work for a wire tech or would take too long. A DT went last and stayed until it worked. New installs also. I would count the wire techs that returned before it was completed. After a couple months a new ticket is built and the only way to know the history was to ask the customers. After a 20minute vent you knew the history without looking at logs.

CWA doesn’t want to pay the strike fund. The officials just want to must sure they get paid.

@2pok+1thcnS5O
That is a GREAT explanation! Good job!

For those of you who obviously have no clue what’s going on, I’ll break it down for you. Several years ago, at least in the SE, T decided that it would be a good idea for Business Field Services-Digital Technicians(SSIM) to start doing Uverse work.
Originally it was supposed to be only uverse business orders with 3-6 voice lines that require the ever intensely complicated IAD. Brain surgeons and nuclear physicists can look at an IAD and are stumped; this is one complicated piece of equipment that apparently can only be tamed by the keen minds in SSIM. It takes years of skill to plug 1 end of an Ethernet cable into a RG and the other end into an IAD and then plug a few RJ11 phone cords into the IAD as well.
What started out with BFS doing Uverse orders with 3-6 lines only has since morphed into BFS doing any & all uverse business orders and repairs. This includes “Enterprise” orders/repairs which are essentially resellers. These are oftentimes in residential houses and have nothing to do with a business at all.
For many DT groups, these Uverse jobs are about 75% of their workload(varying). If it’s copper the DTs are using the 210 residential gateways, same as the Wire Tech. If it’s fiber the DTs are using the 320 residential gateways, same as the Wire Tech. The same drops, the same jumpers, the same SFPs, the same websites, etc. The work is the same.
The DTs didn’t ask for the work. The overwhelming majority of them don’t want to do the work, not that they’re “too good” or “better than”, but rather it’s simply not what they signed up for when entering SSIM. As others mentioned, significant extra test qualifications were required to get into SSIM versus the Wire Tech title, and as with any other job, once you move up(whatever that may be) you really have no interest in going back down. Taking all of that into consideration you can’t blame a DT for not wanting to go back into the everyday Wire Tech world of attics, crawl spaces, and climbing. No one should blame a Wire Tech for wanting an opportunity to better themselves or to be treated equally when justifiable.
So here we are, with a years long pattern of T happily doling out Wage Scale 32 pay along with better benefits, better tours/shifts, etc for Digital Techs to do Uverse work while the Wire Techs are doing the exact same work for less money, less benefits, etc.
2 groups, same work, different pay. Shouldn’t be that way. Neither T nor the U can give a legitimate argument against resolving this. Either equalize the pay/benefits or take the work away from the DTs and get them back to doing actual SSIM work, that’s fine, the complaints would be minimal.

“Both groups are doing a vast majority of the exact. same. work.”

Your whole post was comical, but I want to ask about this specific part. Those techs can work down. Can you work up? Of course they can do your job- can you do theirs, is what I’m asking. How much experience do you have? How many years? How often do you create helper tickets for a senior tech to come help you on?

I have a little policy phrase for all my contingency team co-workers, “Ask Yourself”. I believe it’s ten questions and if you can’t say yes to all of them, we are supposed STOP and not proceed any further then, contact your lead.

I'm on the contingency team. That being said, I've already forgotten everything.

I remember when one entitled Wire Tech came up to me and said, I’m tired of this, I deserve a bucket truck, like the one you are driving. I asked him how long he had been working as a Wire Tech, he said, 4 months. I started laughing and said, really junior? Get in line, it took me over 13 years to get my first one. The shock and disbelief was priceless, told him when I started we didn’t have air conditioners in our vehicles, only a fan or 2 x 55 mph air and we used much heavier wooden ladders especially, after they got wet. Much easier times now and I’m glad, we don’t need to use climbers as much either. Lead cables and B-wire was also more common too.

Most of the old-timers when I started never had a bucket truck their whole career or got one, right at the end. They only had one bucket truck in the crew at first and the senior man in the crew drove it. Everyone used climbers nearly every day, thus a lot of bad knees, backs and joints for them. Tough guys! Working as a lineman, installer or FT is very hard on the body after a long career.

@nqw+1thcnS5O

That’s a bit of a stretch, it is hilarious that you would think WT should skip right over level 31’s OPT’s and ST’s. Wire Tech is an entry level position and level 32 positions are higher rated, not the same. First there is a test qualification, second there is a larger scope of work for 32’s with different and more work task/responsibilities in their job descriptions.

Need to negotiate getting into the core contract first, a level 31 Service Tech is the comparable title, Wire techs actually took over part of the installers (ST’s) work, it was the company’s way of getting installer lite work on the cheap without poor labor rules, that’s how the UFO contract came about.

Prior to that, Wire techs were forced to work their load everyday until complete, no OT limits, way into the night and maybe 1 or 2 days off a month. Top pay was half what it is now and many of the work rules they have now didn’t exist.

“ the only right, proper, fair, & just thing”

What in the he-l does this mean?

Instead of buildable land in Antarctica, maybe oceanfront property less than a 30-minute drive from downtown Dallas….

Since a lot of Uverse work is now being done by Wage Scale 32 Digital Technicians the only right, proper, fair, & just thing to do would be to make the Wire Technicians Wage Scale 32 as well. Both groups are doing a vast majority of the exact. same. work. Getting the Wire Techs up to the correct pay scale should be a no brainer shoe in from both sides, since the company is obviously fine with paying the Wage Scale 32 rate for Uverse work & there’s no reason for the union to be against equal wages. Inexcusable if this doesn’t get done.

Contingency team is going to have a lot more to cover with less knowledge and experience since, there has been so many layoffs and a larger scope of work. The company may have reduced the office footprint but the network, facilities CO’s and equipment hasn’t changed much, going to be very interesting during a work stoppage. We just thought the FCC was up the companies gahzoo before, expect any outages to take a lot more time to get corrected or repaired, our customers aren’t going to be happy. Road moves, sales, provisioning, new installs, damages, troubles, customer care, routines and maintenance, still need to be worked even during a work stoppage.

Not smart Stankey, get these agreements settled ASAP. Surely you don’t think former retired and laid off employees that you shanked and rehired for contingency assignments are going to save you. If so then, I have some buildable land in the Antarctic, I’d like to sell you.

Used to be a stable and great place to work but since all the M&A debacles, it’s now on a Red Bull timeline with, layoffs and asset sales happening at an accelerated rate. The transformation of becoming a much smaller corporation with less product offerings has been painful.

Leadership is no longer trusted and they have created a toxic environment that has caused chaos amongst organizations and employees. No one knows who does what anymore and the expectations, policies and work groups are constantly changing. Very turbulent times!

The company, for all they say that their employees are their number 1 asset, really act like employees are their number 1 expense. Add to it that executives hate expense, and that they view every employee, except themselves, to be interchangeable. Experience seems to mean nothing to them.

The company has always leaned toward short-term gains, but it seems to have gotten a lot worse. I'm afraid the executives are playing a dangerous game of chicken with the union. I know a lot of people say the union is not strong enough for a strike, but with all the company seems to want to take away, there really don't seem to be a reason not to strike. It's worked for other unions recently.

As a manager (aka non-represented exempt employee) with a D9 assignment, I don't want to work strike duty and take these people's jobs. At the same time, the training was so lousy and I'm too stubborn, so I won't be doing their jobs. I refuse to touch anything important, and I sure as he-l am not working my real job while on strike duty.

Stankey is expecting all employees to make up for his and Randall's folly and be happy about it. "Take one for the team", which is going to last for years to get out of, and, if we were on a boat, Stankey would be literally pushing people overboard to keep himself afloat. Of course, he doesn't seem to realize that as he's indiscriminately throwing people overboard, he's not realizing that they are the ones that run the boat, navigate, and run the engines, so he's going to end up in a sinking boat, lost, without an engine, and slowly sink.

I'm just hoping to stay onboard and afloat long enough to get my pension and get out.

Leadership wants it to become gig and contractor work. Not a long term solution for company viability but it will get the current c suite to their golden parachutes. That’s all that matters these days, service the stockholders and elite while scavenging a once great company at the cost of lower rank and file.

Can you call it’s a career when you work for AT&T？

In addition to the OP, I saw where the company is trying to increase the scope of Wire Techs job with just a differential for compensation. The Union ask, is to include them in the Core contract and convert their title to Service Techs since they are the younger and the future workforce. They then can be trained by the experienced Service and Facility Techs since, the majority of them will be retiring over the next 5-10 years.

The company is being penny wise and pound foolish, with the reduction of overtime, a lot of Wire Techs are starting to look elsewhere for employment. They can’t support their young families on regular wages combined with high inflation. Some are already working part time jobs after their shift is over. So the writing is on the wall, without better compensation, there will be big churn within the tech ranks and end up costing the company much more in the long term. I’m not surprised with our current leadership.