I am an EWA tech. Doing copper repair. On average I complete 3 jobs per day. If the jobs that I did are the same things the Union techs do on a daily basis then I can honestly say they are severely overpaid. This isnt the type of work you need 20 plus years experience for. You need 10 to 20% highly skilled techs, and the remainder could be highly motivated 21 year olds from a two year tech program like ITT Tech. It's just not that complicated. I don't see how someone can demand a 100k plus annually in salary and benefits doing this work. Union always talks about "We built this company!" A lot of non-Union people were involved in building this company as well.
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HACK. LOL, I see wat u did there: pair change, cut to clear, reset card and hope for the best, skip that time consuming safety stuff. Your motto is "it was working when I left!" A good tech COULD do at least five or six repairs a day. Why do they pace themselves instead? Because the bean counters then expect you to do even more and try to suspend you when you have a nightmare job that takes all day and still isn't working.
Being in the Central office shows exactly what this post is talking about. This place has little to no work to do. The stuff that is to be done is so minimal. we have three EWA's working the usual work of FIVE regular union techs. We are ahead of schedule. The couple of techs who we talked to who weren't screaming at us like wild animals said, "oh yeah, it gets pretty boring up there, use the computers and surf the internet, that's what we usually do".
i'm an ewa too and i know what a bullshit post this is by a shmucky a--hole
3 copper jobs? Is that something to be proud of? I did 3 copper in philly in less then an hour. And the union is the fat and lazy? Pfft!
"And having a union workforce makes it less desirable to potential buyers."
There's only one potential buyer for VZ's wireline, and they had zero problems in the past buying territories with union presence...and giving pretty fair contracts to the membership.
I went to Macy's to buy some socks all my friends rave about. But Macy's no longer carries those socks. You can't make a company carry and support a product they no longer have interest in. I'm sure FIOs will survive just fine. But VZ isn't going to be the one selling it to the customer.
Lowell only cares about wireless, if that.
@qzn because it's more profitable to package and sell it to Time Warner or some other option. It's crystal clear that VZ will not be expanding FiOS except where required (Boston) and that's only to save face. This is a declining area in the business and has no future as part of VZ. The writing is on the wall, and VZ mgt has been prepping their case to divest it for years now. And having a union workforce makes it less desirable to potential buyers. I know it may sound ridiculous, but nothing any of us do matters. That's the direction the leadership has chosen, and they will do what is required to see it through.
Then why isn't FIOS placed, or engineered, everywhere? Why the hell are we seeing copper repairs? We should be doing FIOS installs EVERYWHERE! The customers want it and DEMAND it.
Yes our engineers put a 100 pair cable in a new building and within a month it had 75 workers and no spares. Businesses still want landlines, dso's, cause they know they are gonna work. Voip goes down and all lines are out, they are getting wise.
20 year tech 5 year EA here. Correct - get them back in service and move on. Cutting out the wet RA / chewed lead not happening today. Engineering wise - we aren't putting in copper unless the developer pays for it. FIOS design is easier the F1/F2 feeds/laterals. No complaints - just want to work.
Yea, transfer till there's no spares, then customer out for a week and the leave us.........that is why wireline line is going dead you idiots!
Please start doing FIOS installs!!
CWA/IBEW VZ techs just nudge out the janitors Union on the union scale
Our job is to fix not transfer, if the cable is getting wet it needs to be repaired or the people keep going oos, that's wrong with this program today. the 20 year tech that's an engineer understands that but most management just wants quick fix for the numbers.
Dear OP, go eff yourself...youre an idiot.
Sincerly,
IM - rural EWA
In our area the techs need 4+ jobs in 8 hours, none cherry picked based on lack of skills, any less than 4 they're on steps. OP is being fed jobs that any 21 yo tech grad could do in 1/2 an hour...and he is bragging about it?
Did it all, 20 years as a splicer, last five as an engineer. It's not hard.
How many lead sleeves did you take off in man holes, how many back yard leads did you fix.......oh you turned those into cable and got a completion. good thing you didn't have any cdp's that take 3 days or you would get your peepee slapped.
Why are you wasting time on copper? Customers want Fios.
"CEV and F1 only pr change" it's not hard - Plenty of spares do to so many disconnects. RCMAC boom - Hasn't been a need for SLC- Litespan cards in years - tons of spares
How do you find a spare if the frame never answers the phone
You just proved my point. Keep 10 to 20% of highly skilled people, like yourself, and replace the rest with cheap, motivated labor. I didn't know squat about anything 30 days ago and I've already picked up the basics. You don't need an entire workforce of overqualified, overpaid experts.
OP, please elaborate on some of the repairs you have done.
Hey Copper Guy........if you are doing only 3 jobs in 12 hours, you would have been suspended by now.
I think its time for you to now put on your big boy pants, and grab a FIOS triple play tomorrow.
I await your post tomorrow night.
@mgm EWA who worked in a CEV.... yeah not hard. Our queue is empty. Keep trying to justify your salary tho, your attempts are cute
Copper is the past. You should be on Fios Installs.
You don't even deserve a smart reply till you step in CEV and F1 only pr changes then we can talk. You don't have a clue what it takes to find a clean pr in high rise building with no lights or air circulation. Go back under the desk and report to your VP , keyboard is all you can handle.