I wish T would offer a buyout package to all the old folks with 30+ years. I have "only" 18 years with the Company and I have to worry about my future every quarter. We have 2 techs in our group with 43 and 45 years service.
They both have said they will not retire because they have "nothing else to do" Both have payed off their houses and cars. LOL
some of these folks with lots of years service need their salaries. What about parents or kids in college they could be taking care of. who wants to leave and in 2-3 years they are working at Walmart for $10 an hour. Not everyone with that much service has a huge amount in the bank. and do you even have any idea how little the pension really is? You have to have a pension, social security and a 401K to really be comfortable. So you in your 30's, get a degree and go work for someone else. Broaden your resume so you are marketable and leave the older folks alone.
There is an angry crowd out there focused on the 30+ career employee. Why don't they take a package when it's offered? Don't they have enough money by now? They are not as " fast and agile" as I am and they are always going to the doctors for back pains, knee pains and the like.
i seriously doubt any of us know the full reasons a co-worker visits their doctor. A back, shoulder, knee or foot discomfort might be Arthritis, cancer, simple dehydration or 20 other things and is that persons Sick time to use. Chances are good they got their ailment on the job and if or when your time comes you can choose to ignore that Achilles Heal, Rotator Cuff etc.
So let's look at the math. Those arguing for early out are now the 30+s and many people wish you gone. You come to T at 25 and put in 35 good years and at age 60, why do you refuse the buyout package and absolutely fear being surplussed:
1). You're 5 years shy of collecting full Pension Benefits and why would you opt out early?
2). You're 2 years from minimum Social Security, Full benefits at 65 or 66. Why take it early?
3). You're putting your kid(s) thru College, maybe on two incomes or perhaps just one. Saving is difficult
4). You took a hard hit in 2008-09 Recession, left the market and never returned. You must work longer.
5). You still have a mortgage to pay off
6). Medical bills not covered and not Medicare eligible....you're not of age.
Do you see where this is going? I could name 5 more reasons. The 30-40 yr T has more potential situations we don't know about.
This might be you in a few years, so I ask the question: If I am calling for you to leave
The company, what is your answer?
I think I know
fk all these old c---y techs talking smack.....i know one thing they dont do is move as fast and agile as when they were young with their stiff painful backs always calling in cause they are at the doctors office. am i lying?
You can't blame the senior guy for your lack of time put in with the company! I have just under 20yrs and all of the techs at our yard with 30+ years are some of the most experienced and well rounded MST's I've ever worked with! When sh-- needs to be fixed right,no ones going to call the new PT/Mst with 2yrs mst work experience....
I went to work for more $$$. I suppose you do as well.
OT, etc.
Explain why anyone should retire when you think "they have enough $$$"?
Many folks would think you have enough $$$$. The new hires would want you to SIPP to save their jobs.
Will you?
Do you work holidays and Saturdays to help the new guys?
Do you not take Holiday weeks to help the new guys?
Do you give the new trucks to the new guys?
Or are you just jealous?
Company could solve problems if they would just sell off landline already. Draw a circle around the Northern Ohio area and you have 18 mobility technicians yes 18. This area covers from the Indiana border East to the Pennsylvania border and south down past Cambridge and Lima plus everything in between. Count the worthless landline guys in the same area and you will be well over 500. Those d-bags have no work at all. Years ago watched as 4 trucks would roll up to a single cell tower to harvest one smart jack card.
I recently watched 4 old timers in the Sandusky garage watch TV all day while we were at training. Every time we would walk in all you would hear is about 38 years blah blah blah. Guess what? No one gives a sh-- time on the job doesn't make you technical, a good worker, or mean you have an ounce of skill. It just means you were a lucky POS that was in the right spot at the right time protected by a POS union.
Unfortunately through mergers all the skillless landline managers made their way over to Mobility and the were promoted through the good ole boy network. It's amazing how f---ed up this company is because of the 100 year old landline way. You jokers are clueless when it comes to taking care of a network and the customer. I cannot hope enough you turds get sold off and we can go back to doing things the real AT&T wireless way. Not this b---s--- Ma bell, Ameritech, SBc Cingular garbage that everyone pretends is great.
So I lose my job because a guy with 45 years is only sticking around for more money??? Nice thanks. This is why the Union is breaking. The original thought was you work 30 years and you get a pension. Now guys are just sitting here expecting more at the expense of middle age union guys. Gee thanks. I have no interest in supporting group particularly is the senior members don't give except their own pile money but the middle age union is suppose eat the senior members sh-- till he if he's lucky enough to become a senior member where I guess he can return the favor and sh-- on a younger guy. Wow good job CWA. Thanks for taking a grand out of my paycheck just so the senior guys can give me the middle finger. I'll remember that next I'm asked to have the blue flu.....
It is not waiting for a buyout that will result in a surplus, it being offered a buyout and not taking it that will result in a surplus.
I'm the poster who said he has 50 years and allow me tell you how it works:
In my group if the company wants to reduce the workforce then it will make retirement offers. If enough offers are accepted then there will be no surplus; If not enough offers are accepted then there will be a surplus. My waiting around for an offer does not cause anyone else to be declared surplus.
Hate it all you want. I, at 38 years could work circles around the new guys who worked faster, but still installed jacks upside down. Had no idea what to do on a cable damage. On their phone a dozen times a day. When the sh*t hit the fan, the boss called me. Seen it all, done it all.
Not my responsibility to retire because you lack enough time. I've been there, done my time.
You want to rotate Saturdays and call outs and VACA pics? How about "No".
Because while you were still in 2nd grade, I was working them and on call out every night.
And lucky to get a week of VACA when school was out. No holiday weeks off for 23 years.
Now, it's your turn.
Seniority is only unfair to those that lack it.
To the "Techs covered by a CWA contract" writer, I will say you have the most compelling argument against my "value" defense. Mostly more physical, blue collar work that rewards the seniority tier than your own. But somewhere down the line this was a Union contract "perk" that was negotiated, and voted on and perhaps even approved on by you....maybe not.
But if that perk is going to be changed, it's time for you, and many like you, to get loud & vocal with your Union Rep. But the honest truth is that you won't say anything because that would make you a target for the next group of cuts, not to mention that same perk my save your butts down the road.
Now for the white collar ET' s, no Unions for managers and in the Northeast, last October I saw a massacre of seniority & wages. I witnessed first hand those who did not take the package were "Surplussed." For every 30+ manager that was cut a younger, less experienced person moved into their place. The same people who depended on getting their knowledge from the recently surplussed.
T saved money but gummed up the sink with knowledge deficit workers.
It was generally known that no matter your work performance, 30+ was the target your boss would go after. There was a quota but all thing equal....if your boss doesn't like you, seniority didn't matter, even if your work is marked as superior, you could be gone. So may I add that it's important to be valuable, more important not to hack off the boss. Good luck
Listen I understand the 30-40 range. No issue with that and even beyond that if you truly love what your doing and actually are a damn good worker. But if you have 40+ years and just want another 40 or 80 grand or whatever it is is just because it's never enough. Those are the people I have an issue with.
I work my a-- off and I know 2, 30+ year employees that are as useless as freezer to an Eskimo. They act like you don't know what a fiber is or how to work an old T1 office repeater yet I can to all that without a sweat. They get payed the same as me get 2 more weeks vacation and use that vacation to bracket all the holidays and my a-- is hanging in the wind. Gee wonder why I'm not thrilled
Paid or payed? What does that have to do with this discussion, Mr. Troll? Since I was surplussed last year, I guess I should have Prayed, maybe my exit would have been Delayed!
Techs covered by a CWA contract are surplussed according to seniority, Period. You "can do your job better than the next person and show your value," but if they want to cut 20 ET's for example, the bottom 20 on the seniority list are gone. We have lost 5 good techs out of our group that really cared about their job and AT&T simply because the slacker beside them had 35 years with the Company, and was out weeks at a time with a back problem.
Don't like it you should have been hired in 1978...before me.
To those AT&T employees wishing long time veterans, with 30+ years, would simply take a buyout package and fade away, reality check. They made that longevity test by being good at what they do and you don't go the distance without gaining approval from the many senior managers that they called boss" over those years. The long timers needed to prove themselves over and over with each new boss.
As for the 18 yr. veteran, and those like him wishing for the 30+ gang to retiree, do your job better than the next person, show your value and you have a better chance of surving the cuts, to making the 30+ gang, and if successful you may even forget you advocated that employees like yourself, should retire perhaps a few years shy of full pension & Social Security.
Remember, that " nice pension" really only matters if you can tap it at the right age. Not all circumstances are equal and if you make the 30+ gang.....remember!
Generally speaking, I agree that you can work as long as you want. But you have 50 years of service (nice) and are ready to retire but your waiting for a little bit of extra money on top of what is probably a nice pension? Meanwhile fellow union members with 15 or 16 year are in danger or will loose their jobs because your technically all set but you want more money to sit on.....thanks. you I was told as a union I should fight for the retires as well because they fought for what we have now . Which is true and my mom was a 32 year michigan bell veteran. But if this is how senior members are going to act why should I continue to support. They are cost younger union members jobs. Sorry but it is.
Paid. It's paid off their houses.... no such word as payed. That I know of.
A buyout may make a few with less years consider also, right money and many will hit the door
I agree to last comment
People have the right to work as long as they want, for as long as the employer will have them. Their reasons for working are no one's business but their own.
I have 50 years of service and I am ready to retire; I am waiting around for a buyout to be offered. Buyouts were offered in the past so it is reasonable to expect them to be offered in the future.
Exactly the company isn't going to pay extra to leave. They're too cheap now. Besides it's easier to surplus. I'm in a similar boat. If you have 40+ years and your debts are paid why the he'll are you here? Your costing middle age union members to lose Joba because you want to sit on your a-- and make 40 bucks an hour while a guy with 15 or 17 gets walked out the door. Thanks......
Buyout? LOL as one VP put it: "Why would the company do that when its cheaper to just surplus?"
45 years? They need to get a life before game over RIP
And typically these are the guys spending the entire day on one or two tickets where a younger guy is able to burn through 3-4 or more. Why retire though? The company is paying them good money and OT? Ha. They're making bank.