7250 commentary: Another letter from at$t VP Mark Royse trying to prepare CWA members for the healthcare take backs they are planning to offer us at the bargaining table.   Mobilization is the key to beating back company retrogressions.  In Unity there is Strength. 

An Open Letter to CWA Members – from the CWA!

In August, Mark Royse, vice president of labor relations at AT&T, sent out his first e-mail to AT&T employees on our upcoming bargaining.  Verizon had just signed a new contract with the CWA which had very minor cost shifting in health care. Royse was   quick to assert that AT&T is not Verizon and we should not expect to get the same treatment as Verizon employees.

He’s at it again trying to soften up our members to take concessions before we even pass the first demand across the bargaining table.  He wants us to accept “similar changes” to what the managers have had to take (because they don’t have the right to bargain).  He says it’s “progress” that there was some additional cost shifting for our brothers and sisters in AT&T Mobility (the wireless industry is only 34% organized).  We have this to say to Mr. Royse: Bargain with our bargaining teams!

Don’t try to tell us that bargaining is just “part of the regular course of business between the Company and the Unions.” It is more than that to us. We only get a chance once every four years to address key issues with AT&T and, if the Company makes unreasonable demands, it definitely will be a “distraction” from serving our customers.

If Mr. Royse wants to write letter, let him write to Congress supporting health care reform. If he wants a level playing field with non-Union cable & wireless, let him spend his time working for the Employee Free Choice Act which will make it easier for non-Union wireless & cable workers to organize into a Union .

Let AT&T know you will support your bargaining teams. If Mr. Royse keeps sending these messages to our members, they will end up in the SPAM folder where they belong. We’ll get our bargaining advice from our Union , not AT&T.  

www.CWAatATT.com

www.cwalocal7250.org

You Can’t Win Alone, as a UNION we can!