Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

Not every location in the company has wire techs, core guys have been doing all this stuff yall are whining about for years.

Be thankful it's not 12% or less. If you don't like the contract that will be voted to pass, then go work somewhere else. The only way you are going to make Core pay is to transfer into a Core position.
They should change the title to this site to TheLayoffs and Whiners.com.

D3 Tentative Contract Agreement is Increasing Wire Technician scope of work, but only a 13% raise over 5 years.

F–k this.

Stop crying. If you agreed to do the job at whatever pay they offered you, it is your fault. No one forced you to take the job.

@ 2zpc
Not sure what area you are in but in southeast wt places xconn at sai/pfp including vrad, sync from ped including copper/fiber drop buried/aerial, runs iw and places cpe for residential and business customers. I&R is needed only if trouble found in distribution cable that cannot be resolved by pair change.

In my area FT and ST having been taking the bonded pair from the WT and DT are doing the business hsi/ voip .......yes they treat y’all bad work y’all like dogs but we were doing the WTs work before prem tech /wire techs and we do it after they are gone

I was hired as a wire tech in a very rural area and around metro atl with a boss who made us change every single drop and station wire for 5 1/2 yrs, went to being a st for 3 yrs, then surplused to a opt for 2 yrs....buddy your wire tech world is very limited...im out in the sun 8 hrs of the day in the heat running fiber so you can keep your easy a– job so sit down and shutup before you get bumped out of your job by a core tech

In the early 90s when I worked for GTE we were called I&R Techs - Installation and Repair. We pulled the order, ran the jumper in the B-Box, gaffed the Ready Access pole, found your pair, hoped it worked or back to B-Box and try again, then we set the drop, hit the secondary poles, got to the prem, hung the SNI and then crawled the attic or the crawlspace to get I/O to the jack for the Princess phone or the Fax machine.

Now I see one guy in a bucket truck work the cross-connect and follow the cable to the buried terminal, where another guy tones the in-place drop to the house and a third guy shows up to plug the modem into a pre-existing jack followed by guy number 4 who tries to upsell them on a new cell phone.

Not to diss on any of the people actually doing this work for a living - but what freaking genius MBA came up with this plan?

yo genius, probably because almost everything is going wireless? including higher bandwidths than copper.

When I was an ST, i did all the work a wire tech would, im just curious what does a ST do now, Just run a jumper?

Why do these clowns say that STs should try doing WT work? Seriously? STs have been doing station work since long before most of these WTs and their daddy's were even born. STs did ALL premise/station work for DECADES, whatever the latest technology was. Getting back to the barn at 7pm only to find your manager standing at the gate with a stack of troubles to go back out on was going on back in the 70's at least that I have seen. Climbing, crawling, working late and weekends is nothing new. The only thing different now is that work was taken away from WS30 STs and given to lower WS WTs.

A FT and ST could not handle wire tech work. Hang in there wire techs, when its all over you will still have a job, more surpluses are going to happen and it will be ST,FT, and OPT. The company knows this, they are just slowly cutting them, no sense having all those titles, especially when they dont do anything to actually help the company. #deadweight

As a WT I will say only 12 weekends off a year and working till the load is clear every night is a lot when trying to spend time with wife and kids. I’d rather have an additional Saturday off a month and optional ot each day so I can see my kids grow up and make it to ballgames and all than money.

Most FT’s & ST’s need to try a day in WT’s shoes. 3 fiber internet/tv installs and 2 repairs being forced to work until done. Out till 11 or later at night.

Lol. The line guys do the most work. Yes a lot is with heavy equipment but you can’t get away from serious grunt work:

• Hand digging an anchor hole because the anchor is too close to a gas or water pipe.

• Digging and placing a pole without heavy equipment in the back country.

• Pulling a lasher when a Telsta UCLA time be used.

Etc.

@hli, climbing poles and crawling under houses is wage scale 30 Service Tech work and a lot of that was taken away from them and given to lower wage scale wire techs...that should have never happened especially with "representation". When the U allows something like that to happen of course there will be animosity.

I'll be honest, as an ST, I lost a lot of respect for fellow core guys when out on the picket line they were talking about how they didn't care if wire tech guys got a good contract or not. Wire techs were out there picketing, losing pay just like the rest of us. I thought this fight was together. I'm sure it's not a popular opinion, but a tech is a tech, we just work different areas, but they all work together. I'll tell you now, a core guy that doesnt stand by his fellow techs, and look out for them on this contract is no better than a scab. Your just a wolf in sheeps clothing, using wire techs to strike, and help get you what you want. Getting benefits from their sacrifice. I dont want to have to do their job. I dont want to have to climb those poles, and do direct TV installs. Think about it, you really think they are going to give us all of their work when they could just give them all of ours. Most of those guys would love to do our jobs for less money than we do it for. Use some freaking common sense guys. I dont know about some of you, but it's a pain in my tail end trying to crawl under houses, or climb poles at my age. I'm not getting any younger, and neither are any of you.

If and when core k–ls us Premies, will they be able to push back against the work load? I might not have a job then but I’ll be happy knowing they are doing 2-3 jobs max and letting the other 3-4 jobs go undispatched.

I’d love to see the old dudes telling AT&T to s— it and leaving before the all clear.

Staffing won’t let us bump wire techs, even though it’s in the contract that we can.

@bxa....ST should be doing WT work. All work from the terminal in used to be ST work until parts were given away to Wire Techs.

I read all these posts and I say to myself yep, at&t has already won the war. They’ve successfully divided and conquered craft. Sad to see all this attacking of each other. You’re just playing right into the company’s hands.

Don't worry wire techs, you are gonna see a lot more opt and st surplus next quarter. They will not take your job, cause it requires work.

I find it a bit backwards that when on strike everybody is preaching brotherhood, and standing together to get a better contract, but when that contract is c-ap for wire techs everybody turns their backs on them. Let's face it, wire techs do get paid significantly less, and their work load has only increased. They work longer hours, for less pay, and obviously less respect, but if they are standing with us out there then they deserve a decent contract as well. If we turn our backs on them now, then eventually they will turn their backs on us.

I was a service tech for 10 years , layed off twice, I know the wire techs do harder work, Its a fact, An ST would cry if they had to do a wire tech job

Whenever you get surplussed to a Wiretech you will find out what real work is.

"We do most of the work.."
Wire techs doin specials now? DEG work? Construction? CO work(not just a jumper)?

It’s called entry level for a reason.

probably requires the least skill, and your easily replaceable? go find a job that is non-unionized. that way, you will get paid what the market demands.

You and the company wanted it.