Dear Members,
Friday, CWA Local Presidents approved an MOA for a voluntary severance package. There will not be a declared surplus for any technicians in the third quarter, but on June 15th the company will post district-wide, the number of employees AT&T is wanting to reduce from payroll. The majority of employees the company is looking to reduce are FT's and ST's in AFO and some OPT's. If the company cannot get enough voluntary separations, the remaining numbers will be declared surpluses on September 15th as part of 4th quarter surplus. As part of the agreement, the company will increase the SIPP table in art. 8.03 by $50,000. The company will offer this to all technicians if they cannot get enough vols. from the titles they need. There will be some possible movement if we can get enough vols. to take the package. Employees will have until June 22nd to submit for the package and for relocation preferences. If severance is approved, your off-payroll-date will be on July 18th or no later than July 31st.
In the WT side of AFO there will also be an offer for voluntary separation. The offer will be announced sometime after July 1st with an off payroll date no later than September 1st. As part of the MOA the company will offer an additional $5,000 to the layoff provisions of section 6.04 of the network addendum. The company will be restructuring the WT side of AFO prior to announcing any numbers. As with core if there are not enough vols. the company will then declare a surplus at a later time.
I have spoken with Jonathan Beitler from NettWorth Financial Group and to most of your stewards on how we will proceed. Once the company announces the numbers for our local, I will set up a zoom meeting to explain the process and to answer any questions. A few things to consider until we get final numbers: please don't speculate, we were hit hard last year and that could possibly reduce our number across all titles. Please keep it civil and lets not start saying who should and shouldn't go. We've done a great job locally and we need to continue to do so especially during these trying times. And last, if you or someone you know has been considering leaving please wait until we have full numbers and you can be counted as an employee who saved a job.
In Unity,