The union does not have the power to prevent lay offs, as it seems they dont even have the power to negotiate, the wired side has a year without a contract,and mobility has the health care benefits increased by 100%. Any grevience takes a year or more to be resolved. It seems they are either in att's back pocket or just gutless. The bad part is we voted for this people to look out for our future, and they are showing they have no huevos...
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@xab it would be helpful for me if you would define “union officials” because to my mind that’s local reps who do live with the same wages and benefits as members. they’re the ones doing extra work without additional compensation to keep the union negotiations going and saber-rattling so the public knows that workers are getting sc--wed.
that aside, as a nonunion hourly employee in a right-to-work state with zero healthcare as part of my compensation, i can imagine how fast healthcare would get better if congress had the same benefits as “citizens”.
You all talk a lot of sh-- on here but I bet you just sit on your a-- and complain instead of being proactive.
A tech in my group wanted to resign from the CWA. He was required by contract to send 2 certified letters-one to HR and one to the CWA within 10 days of the anniversary of our contract(that is the only time you can opt-out). CWA said they were having trouble reading part of the letter and he should send another one. Can't E-Mail or Fax--must be a certified letter, by the time he did, they received it after the 10 day window and did not approve it. Payroll would not stop the dues coming out of his check without "permission from the CWA" He got a lawyer and was advised that this was in the contract and could not be stopped. We thought that only the IRS could garnish your check without a court order!!
So does this mean that contract negotiations take place at the country club over $3,000 lunches?
No wonder the contract negotiations are handled poorly, the union big shots feel closer to the company big shots than they do to the hard working union members who pay their salary.
Real working people need to be directly involved in the negotiations, that will get better results and some honesty to process.
Union officials he was speaking about not getting paid are local representatives. They are not doing the neogiations. They don't get paid. They are just employees that need a title to feed their ego. Unqualified to represent anyone. No pay equals you get what you pay for.
So the membership is clueless on how much they are really making. I'm running for office and then I can triple my pay.
You missed one, the president of the CWA is well compensated
CHRISTOPHER M. SHELTON
base $456,008 Benefits $114,022 Total Comp $570,030 PER YEAR
Now for a big on. The leadership voted to get 15% of their total salary compensation added to the 401k they get.
Still think they are doing this for us?
WRONG, The executive of the union are paid BY THE UNION based on the level they deal with starting with the local presidents if they are full time which most are . It has always been like that . The least is 3rd level pay with expenses up to company VP level. Do you really think they do the work for your benefit ?
Just a few of the poor leaders of the CWA.
Name Job base pay, fees, total comp.
PETER MITCHELL IUE-CWA GEN COUNSEL $458,053 $23,487 $481,540
LAWRENCE COHEN PRESIDENT $193,197 $8,261 $201,458
ANNIE HILL SECRETARY-TREASURER $172,994 $12,026 $185,020
DANIEL WASSER EXECUTIVE OFFICER - PPMWS $124,233 $53,245 $177,478
JAMES CLARK IUE-CWA DIV PRESIDENT $150,864 $22,680 $173,544
CLAUDE CUMMINGS JR VICE PRESIDENT $150,864 $20,191 $171,055
LAURA REYNOLDS VICE PRESIDENT-DIST 9 $150,864 $16,011 $166,875
EDWARD MOONEY VICE PRESIDENT-DIS 213 $150,864 $15,837 $166,701
BERNARD LUNZER TNG-CWA PRESIDENT $150,864 $14,198 $165,062
GUERINO CALEMINE III GENERAL COUNSEL $158,170 $6,701 $164,871
CHRISTOPHER SHELTON VICE PRESIDENT-DIS 1 $150,864 $12,561 $163,425
FOR THE RECORD, CWA OFFICERS AND PRESIDENTS ARE MEMBERS WHO RUN FOR OFFICE. It doesnt pay a salary! They only get reimbursed for lost wages when they are out on union duties
If union officials do not work for the good of the members they should be voted out of office. If the union officials pay and benefits was the same as what members get on the job, you can bet they would work hard for a better contract.
The union has the balls to strike, but why would they, when they have millions of dollars in the strike fund? They don't want to let go of any of that money while the members are out picketing. That is why the union, regardless of how their members vote, still won't strike.
Not possible, if you are in represented " willingly or unwillingly " pay your dues, you have no choice but the street
We should Strike like Verizon did! They were out for some time but they held out for a good contract and got one! Members already voted to strike if we need to.... Union just doesn't have the balls to do it
True as long as the T thinks no one will stand up to them and Srike, they will continue to screw the employees until there is nothing left but low wage, low benefit workers with zero experience or job knowledge! And a cloud based manager in India that you report to online chat.
The problem is people that are prounion yet really don't understand that the contract and benefits failure is due to bad negotiations, as rsc we our compenstion has gone down hill increase in benefits and get micromanage to the t. For the wired side they have no settled anything new in negotiations, they have a book as a fat as the old phone books for a contract while the mobility side has a small book with a 25% of the wired side benefits. This is all due to us as union members not having the guts to actually striking and standing for better benefits. Last contract the employees sold out for a one time 1000 bonus when they could have negotiated 1000 for every year until the new contract was up. We say we are united but really are not.
Well, you can also blame conservatives in government who enabled all the right to work states. Those who opt out of paying dues but expect the same benefits and protections screw us, too. If everyone paid in and we actually stood together instead of bashing, we could have fought harder long ago and maybe avoided some of this.
You can blame everything on the union....every contract the T takes & takes and in the process they make billions in profits and spend 💵 On stupid ideas and mergers that cost people their jobs!
Union officials should have to live with the same wages and benefits as the members. That would give them incentive to stop being lazy and s---ing up to management.
Imagine how fast we would get better healthcare if congress got the same medical benefits as citizens.