Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

Hey C&E, keep up the home garage and OT! Work as fast as you can and maybe you could be included in the Q2 surplus. I told all you d* a for years you’re working yourself out of a job. Now get out there and knock out that Fiber build. Take that OT tonight and this weekend also. You can get an adda boy.

Sfb was right. Keep home garaging and working that OT. Been saying it for years but nobody listened.

There are still some state regulatory issues around POTS depending on your state, and quite a few ip-co customers in those cables, but the urgency definitely isn’t as dire as it was.

I’m in core, and we’re under one 3rd Line with IEFS. We do all but IPTV and DTV. The Company will keep enough PT’s around for that work; it’s easy enough to add or remove quals in dispatch. Those coming from C&E won’t even think they’re at the same Company. No inspectors on this side of the house.

wired thru? hahahahahah that's a good one

We are seeing millions of yoy declines in customers abandoning copper voice lines. What is the numerical fill rate that we must get down to before the company changes theses processes? 5 customers in a 2100? The integrity is basically record keeping. Understand that there are no technician dispatches on the few customers who are ordering this service because they have been wired through so perhaps the economics aren’t at the point of making drastic changes. However in some cases, 75-80% of the money spent in these types of repairs are for what is basically abandoned facilities.

Usually when there is a cable failure it is in the underground, and generally it will be straight F1 pairs. The reason for the like for like replacement is to keep the cable pair integrity at the cross connect boxes that the F1 pairs go to, even thou there are not that many workers.

That is the problem with a lot of the ATO processes. Never designed or changed to account for permanent losses of business. A 1800 pair get damaged and even though it might only have a couple of hundred customers these days the resources are tossed at it like it was full of customers. Like for like replacement in a lot of cases. Basically replacing 1600 pair for no reason.

sorry, you think C&E makes the company run? Wow you need to step back from those training manuals and look around

I wonder how many PT's would be willing to stand knee deep in mud splicing a 1200 pair cable in a freezing rain, and in the middle of the night. I would bet most of them would text a resignation to their manager.

That decision by the local manager leading to a call out says a lot about how managers are treated.

@XXaVD61-1wtn

In a nutshell what is wrong with this company especially repair...

Recently was out of my turf and pulled a misc ticket for a cut cable. Went to the site and found a cut 300 pair cable. This was a Friday afternoon. The local manager said to close as it would be handled the following Monday. Went home and got a call-out at 11:30 pm to fix the same damn cable. You never know who is on that cable!

Agree but have seen the field work 24x7 to expedite the restoral of 1500 pair with 150 workers, no specials and very few customer reports. Understand we have to provide service but wonder if there is some financial perspective on what we toss at those situations. Mgrs act as if it is the old days when a cable that size would have a thousand plus customers and hundreds of customers reporting.

if that. But you have to fix it. And correctly.

That 300 pair cable probably only has 40 customers working in it and only 5 of those care enough to call in a customer report.

I may spend one day waiting on diggers to open a pit so i can can splice a cut 300 pair cable. The next day I could do 4 bonded pair installs pulling a home-run on each one. I think we are getting close to one dispatch!

No problem probie Pt....I’ll keep my overtime if want & my 200k plus a year income thank you!! Plus my 385k pension!...And my Article 2 job protection. Any pt can be let go at any time with zero job protection.....Thank the union for that id--t move!

Company a**holes did a good job of creating division.

@XXaVD61-aft

1185 splicers company wide? WRONG. what you fail to know is that in the Midwest [old Ameritech states ] the title of cable splicing technician as known in most att areas is under the title of "Customer Services Specialist (Con). so there are probably 1000 or so people under that title in 5 states and the majority are splicers .

. The majority surplussed with time in midwest will end up in repair NOT premtech land. Also anyone in splicing can do that horrible job for low pay...but guess what?? nobody in their right mind would want to unless they had to ....which some may.

“Question is how many will not be needed when the government mandated build is over or the First Net requirements in our footprint are completed.”

Apparently that number is 903!

The super tech concept has been the holy grail for the 30 years I have been with the company. However having starting my career in a rural area I have seen it work to some degree. We had a lot of hats. Transferred to a larger area and was shocked that we had installers that couldn’t work repair and repair techs that couldn’t read a service order. Repair techs that didn’t know how to change a card in a DEG hut. Basically the work was segmented to sometimes need 3 dispatches. Some of that has changed and no doubt the technology is a lot more complex but it can be improved on.

Doubt that C&E disappears if the company is truly committed to 5G. My understanding is that this is fiber based. Plus a lot of the new builds are being built with fiber including all MDU’s and business locations. Engineers have been told that fiber is the first choice. Question is how many will not be needed when the government mandated build is over or the First Net requirements in our footprint are completed.

There is not enough core guys to do all the work period. There are 1655 Prem techs in the midwest alone. With the 268 that are on the sheet being surplused that leaves 1,387. Vsipp will most likely be offered to core to widdle them down. Prem will be doing the majority of the work. And the core guys that stay will be have their pay frozen until prems get to that level just like currently. They are trying to cut cost.

Hey C&E, keep up the home garage and OT! Work as fast as you can and maybe you could be included in the Q2 surplus. I told all you d* a for years you’re working yourself out of a job. Now get out there and knock out that Fiber build. Take that OT tonight and this weekend also. You can get an adda boy.

The company wants all techs to volunteer to bump to appendix j. It erases decades of contract evolution for wireline and gives the company more control over the work force.

All techs will be trained to be a “do it all single dispatch tech” under the new restructure starting in August. I hate to see anyone lose their job but the prem title is easier for the company to eliminate. They’ll come up with another title for the single dispatch and call everyone that. It will make future surplus easier when everone is the same group.

You took your C&E job to run from mandatory OT. Your desire to run from being “forced” to work proves my point. You are not built for the prem tech world.

Second- if every I/R tech and every C&E tech bumped a prem tech there would still be more prem techs on payroll. That’s just the math. According to the leaked email the ONLY thing keeping C&E in place is the fiber build and we can tell that ends in the 3rd quarter. As far as I/R and C&E and there traditional roles those are gone. Working with anything POTS is what the company has to dump as it has been proven they are just a drain on revenue. The worst part for those groups is that the Uverse foot print is much smaller than legacy wireline groups. If you aren’t working in a Uverse market prepare to move for those bumping rights.

There won’t be “I/R ,C&E or Prem. It will all be one.

"Cable splicers are in no way prepared for working as prem techs." ..... how you figure? I worked most of my career in I&R ... then Cable Splicer .... and now my current title.

Trust me, in Construction nowadays there are a lot of people who have worked as techs before, took a Construction gig due to surplus or just wanting to and it hardly takes any special talent to do Prem Tech work .... just that no-one with any time WANTS to do it!

Prem Techs will be mostly gone in the next few years and I&R will do it all.

I was the one who posted as XWvEDLd-hnx.

And yes, if legitimate the numbers in the leaked email screen shot show a 3rd quarter surplus of just over 900 C&E. At the time company wide there are 1185 cable splicing technicians. We can assume the bulk of the 900 are splicers. The organization will not stay intact supporting 200 union employees. The remaining techs would be absorbed in another organization. If the splicing techs have the bumping tights (does not apply to management) we have heard about over the years then they will not be surplused. Instead they will be offered prem jobs first where openings are available second they will take existing prem jobs. Cable splicers are in no way prepared for working as prem techs.

They may keep a job but they would now fall under appendix j. They will be working weekends, climbing in attacks and dealing face to face with customers all while wearing BAP. These are all things they have no experience doing. That doesn’t even touch the gap in skill set.

As far “bumping rights” we have all been told they exist but I have never had anyone say where you find that in writing. What page is that on in the contract?

How many C&E guys are jumping at the opportunity to do Prem work? Lol Core's failure to provide backup at contract time is shooting them in the a--.

MW surplus 148 wire/prem Q2, off payroll Q3, surplus 140 C&E Q3 and then offer the C&E to stay and do the prem/wire tech work under new re-structure, Q4 surplus remaining prem/wire, end of year have all techs trained for single dispatch. Just watch. C&E surplus but not losing job.

AOC also gives you a guaranteed job “with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations and retirement security” So, who cares about layoffs? And if you are unwilling to work, she's got you covered too.

*Family not included. It's immoral to have a baby anyway (See Climate Change)

**Medical leave capped at 12 years. (See Climate Change)

***Vacation excludes destinations using car or plane travel (See Climate Change)

****Retirement not included. You won't make it to retirement (See Climate Change)

It doesn’t matter. AOC says the world is going to end in 12 years anyway.

The massive fiber installation is going to end up negatively impacting both groups. Same blueprint as the fiber to the cell sites project a few years ago. A lot of the repair issues disappeared.

Yo ! brah.... lay off the pipe ! will ya' !?