Sorry man, but this "blame the evil corporations" c-ap is going to get us NOWHERE. Look, corporations are only beholden to their SHAREHOLDERS. Period. Well, that and the S.E.C. If you want a say in the business' activities, you need to be a shareholder.
Instead of the CWA squeezing every last penny per hour they could out of AT&T all these years, maybe they should of traded monetary compensation for actual stock or stock options. You know, "put some skin in the game." Instead of being a bunch of "takers" and whiners. Then you'd have a say in how stuff gets done.
The CWA and every Union out there is screwing their members/workers. Once upon a time, Unions were "good" and useful. Unions came about not for "wages," but for safety at the workplace and limiting the hours that could be mandated. Way back when...1920's, 30's... whatever... people would go to work and lose limbs and lives. Unions came about to keep people SAFE.
Today, a Union's primary "raison d'etre" (reason to exist) is to get more money. Nothing more. I still can't justify a CORE tech's wage scale. It's ABSURD... $40 an hour to play with some wires. Gimme an EFFIN BREAK y'all! As a Wire Tech, I felt fairly compensated when I was topped out at $25 an hour in 2016. WT's performed more unique functions than a CORE tech for only 60% of a CORE tech's pay. They're coming for you NEXT, CORE...
But you know how it goes. Push, push, push... the breaking point will be reached. Guess what? Technology and automation is coming for everybody. There's nothing you can do about it except to adapt. If you don't want to adapt, you'll starve.
Money is like water --- it seeks the path of less resistance. And water is powerful. Given enough time, it will carve away at anything. Just look at the Grand Canyon. The biggest problem I see in this country is that we've been screwed with the piss poor education we've received. You can't expect people to understand economics if you don't teach them. And the last time I checked, economics is barely taught in U.S. primary schools. So this is why you have a nation full of people looking for HANDOUTS.
You guys have no one to blame but yourselves. The writing was on the wall for the last 5 years. Yet you still insist that your employer owes you something other than a paycheck for work completed as needed. Guess what? They don't need you anymore!
The network has migrated to SDN --- Software Defined Network.
The plant has migrated to OTA --- Over the Air.
The need for actual "hands on" labor has drastically been reduced. Deal with it. It's life. It's progress. It's what you get in a technologically advanced society.
If you don't like it, give up your HSIA, smart phones, PC's, satellite TV, etc... You all rave about your latest Samsung smartphone or iPhone or 80" 4K OLED yadda yadda yadda, yet you don't see how you're contributing to your own irrelevancy.
Wake up. As our world accelerates towards the "Singularity," you will be required to retrain and adapt at a much faster rate than previous generations.
And if y'all really that worried, p-ss-d off, whatever... you'd all stop blowing your inflated salaries on the c-ap y'all spend it on and start preparing for this new reality. Stop with the corporate blame game. Corporations have been around for thousands of years. They serve a legitimate function in our human society --- all the way back to the Romans, Phoenicians, etc.
AT&T is not your welfare check. It's a business. And no business is going to keep labor it no longer needs.