Would you cross a picket line?

[hornedfrog]

I wasn't referring to you at all! Two man areas.

No, problem...wasn't sure, as I asked the same question pages ago and received no answer. What are the two main areas, specifically?

 

[LindaG4458]

I am an AT&T manager (low-level)...and we are REQUIRED to cross. We are the 'subs' and if we do not report to work (my strike assignment is in a different city doing a completely different job than I normally do), we could be fired. So, here I sit...awaiting an update (right now the union has not called a strike and they are saying they will work without a contract).

So yes, I WILL cross. I need my job! Did it for the last strike 4 years ago and it was horrible...I really wish those that picket could understand that WE (the lower-level managers that they are taunting and trying to pick fights with) are NOT the 'enemy'. Our healthcare is horrible, our hours are long and we get NO overtime for working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, if there is a strike.

DH was in the same situation with the electric company during two strikes. In some places the picket line was relatively calm; in others there were nails on the road, broken windows in vehicles, and so on. The police monitoring the line were union and looked elsewhere when such things were going on.

The strikes were during the summer. The strikers were also working under the table doing various construction jobs. When the weather turned colder they settled for the same thing they had been offered in the early days of the strike.

After the strike was over the managers who crossed the line received a bonus for their efforts supporting the company.

 

[birdiesunshine]

No, problem...wasn't sure, as I asked the same question pages ago and received no answer. What are the two main areas, specifically?

Not two "main" areas two "man" areas.

 

[LindaG4458]

so, just curious, if you were a retiree and your health benefits were taken away...still no problems? That is one of the main issues here.

We are retired and will not be surprised if our health care is reduced or discontinued. If it happens we will be grateful for having the benefits for as long as we have. It costs a good amount of cash for them.

 

[hornedfrog]

Not two "main" areas two "man" areas.

Sorry, read to quickly. Can you please elaborate? I know what a 'two man area' is, but what change is on the table that creates an unsafe situation?

 

[birdiesunshine]

Sorry, read to quickly. Can you please elaborate?

These are areas where two men work together where there is a lot of crime. The company wants to send only one man in there to do the work now to save money. Cops don't go in these areas alone, why should a phone worker? That is one safety issue. As I said, there are many more issues but to me this thread is merely about bashing union workers and not fact checking. PM me if you want more facts. I would think you would know them seeing you are management but I would be more than happy to give you the important issues and yes healthcare is one of them but certainly not the only one.

 

[hornedfrog]

These are areas where two men work together where there is a lot of crime. The company wants to send only one man in there to do the work now to save money. Cops don't go in these areas alone, why should a phone worker? That is one safety issue. As I said, there are many more issues but to me this thread is merely about bashing union workers and not fact checking. PM me if you want more facts. I would think you would know them seeing you are management but I would be more than happy to give you the important issues and yes healthcare is one of them but certainly not the only one.

Can you please provide a link?

 

[birdiesunshine]

Can you please provide a link?

I assume you are not an outside plant manager. Sending you a pm with the info you request.

 

[GeorgeG]

I was in that situation once many years ago. The union employees in the company I worked for went on strike and I was management. I crossed the picket line every day for 5 1/2 weeks. It was my job. The sad thing was that they went on strike after rejecting what was a very good contract, by any standards, and came back for one that wasn't as good.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I don't see this thread as bashing union employees at all. I agree that in many cases they are unnecessary these days, but not all.

As I mentioned earlier, Disney has a fairly strong union, especially in entertainment. Until you have worked that job you cannot understand how incredibly demanding it is physically and mentally. You cannot understand how inevitable it is that you will be injured on the job. The union helped to secure better working conditions because in many cases the people making the policies had never performed the job. That doesn't mean that they're bad people, just that they didn't necessarily have a full understanding of how the policies would affect the Cast Members.

There is also the issue with us working in all the parks. There were times I worked in a different park every day- sometimes multiple parks in one day. Each time I was with a different group of people and different managers. When you have that much mobility stuff happens. The union does help to protect those who are being disciplined unfairly, but I rarely saw people who should not have been kept being kept. In that case the union did a lot of good.

 

[pearlieq]

In most cases, no. If I can avoid it I won't cross a picket line.

However, after researching the situation, if I don't agree with the circumstances of a strike I would have no problem crossing. If I don't know the particulars, I prefer to give the striking workers the benefit of the doubt.

 

[pr surfer]

I'm not a fan of crossing them, but I have done this. When I was in San Francisco. 2 hotels on one block, 1 was being picketed. Unfortunately, the were picketing around the block. So I had to cross nightly.

Also, across the street from where I grew up in San Juan, there's a TV station. When they had picketers, I crossed almost daily to walk to the Starbucks nearby.

 

[birdiesunshine]

This thread has lost its way. The bottom line is AT&T has made an enormous amount of money. 14,000,000 dollars was what was left in their bank account after they paid all of there bills. Once all the "greedy union workers" were paid, CEO's and CFO's were paid there "ridiculous bonuses" and AT&T acquired Bell South and Cingular wireless and many other European Telecom companies there was still 14 million left in their account.

Nobody is claiming poverty and no one is asking for bailout money and no one is looking to put AT&T in the poor house. Bernie Madoff didn't run off with millions of dollars.

The fact is AT&T is hand has been a very profitable company. Double digit revenue increases for 18 straight quarters, raised dividend on stock price and CEO's taking huge bonuses.

What is amazing is that the amount of revenue earned or saved can be directly associated with the 12,000 workers they just laid off not 1 year ago. In such a bad economy AT&T has manged to do just fine.

What I also find amazing is that hard working people who work hard every day and struggle to make ends meet decide to use their income to buy AT&T products and services not realizing that the money they spend goes to the top 5% of the people in the company while the 95% gets whats left over.

So lets talk about whats left over. I receive 31 dollars an hour. I am entitled to over time over 8 hours and double time over 11 hours cumulative for the week. I get 10 sick days and 10 paid holidays and I get 4 personal days. I receive a pension and a 401k with a company match (80 percent of the first 6 percent) paid in stock which averages a 5% dividend. I get 3 weeks paid vacation and if I last long enough will be able to earn 5 weeks. I get a pair of boots a year and a clothing allowance through company apparel. I get on the job training and I work on telephones and the new AT&T U-verse service. I also pay nothing towards my premium of health care. I pay 20 dollars for office visits and 75 dollars for ER visits. I get 1 free dental exam a year and one free eye exam as well as money towards glasses if needed.

Sounds pretty good and it sounds like when we talk about a strike for health care we sound greedy. It isn't about what we have or don't have. All of the things I have mentioned have been afforded to me by the people who came before me. We must now carry on for those who are to carry on after us.

Is it not fair that when SNET (Southern New ENGLAND TELEPHONE COMPANY) NOW AT&T , back in the eighties fell on hard times they asked us to for go raises and pay increases. They laid off workers and made those who stayed take unpaid days off and work shorter weeks, because they did and the union conceded because it was for the good of the company. Now that our company is profitable shouldn't the worker share in that success?

Again it isn't about what we have but is about the gap between the very lowest of workers and the CEO's whom are out of touch with the struggles of the middle class.

No one is asking for more but only to keep what we have. CEO's who make 23 million dollars like Randall Stephenson doesn't know what it would be like to pay 15,000 dollars a year towards health care. Many of you out there reading this knows what it is like and it is a struggle. The issue is again AT&T is very very very profitable and if it weren't for the 125,000 workers it couldn't possibly be as successful as it is. Companies need worker bees too and we also need CEO's to make smart decisions to keep the worker bees busy but laying off 12,000 workers to keep enormous bonuses putting people on unemployment making them the taxpayers burden is unfair.

Whether I have to pay for medical benefits or not shouldn't bother people. I know it does because what MAKES ME BETTER THAN YOU...RIGHT? NOTHING!! just that I work for a very profitable company and they should be responsible enough to take care of the workers who are taking care of them. When a company like AT&T pulls its benefits from its workers which company is next?

Lastly I have the potential to work 365 days a year. I have worked on Christmas day. I work in the snow, wind, rain heat. I work in crawl spaces in attics and on telephone poles 30 feet in the air sometimes on very tiny hooks and not on a ladder or in an aerial lift vehicle all while trying not to get killed or kill someone. I work around high power tension lines everyday. My office is 30 feet in the air with no windows and no door. I set up traffic safety around my truck trying not to get run over. I encounter poisonous plants, mice, rats, snakes, bats, dogs and ticks and spiders. I enter manholes filled with water and pollutants and am around lead and asbestos. I dig trenches through neighborhoods where the wires are underground and make those repairs where the only thing between my feet and high voltage is a rubber blanket and a puddle of water. My job is rated by OSHA as one of the top five hazardous jobs right behind forestry and commercial fishing. So when you talk about being greedy , you should really think about what a worker in the telephone company encounters daily. Not everyone's house is as clean as your own. I also have to posses a knowledge on how to actually install and fix things under all of those conditions as well.


The Husband of BirdieSunshine.

A hardworking union member who feels that when a company is as profitable as AT&T at some point should reward the worker to share in that success.


Managers who cross picket lines are not scabs and don't deserve the BS they go through for no more additional pay.

Plenty of 1st level managers are trying to organize into unions of their own because of the way they have been treated by AT&T and there is a court case pending right now which is to determine if they are exempt or not. If they are exempt AT&T will have even more union workers on their hands in the form of 1st level managers.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Why the long AT&T rant? The question posed in the OP specifically was would you cross a picket line? A hypothetical question not necessarily related to a single situation.

Frankly, after reading your post it makes me less sympathetic. You all have it pretty good and after reading what some of the non union AT&T people have posted here about their health benefits it all sounds ridiculous. I'm hoping that is not the full story.

 

[bigmerle1966]

 

[ireland_nicole]

As a nurse, I would certainly cross a picket line. My dad isn't thrilled by the prospect, being on a teamster pension, but we do very different jobs. Personally, I was never forced to join a union and would never voluntarily do so as a nurse (I joined Actors Equity when I was younger, and as eeore's butterfly stated, as an entertainer the work conditions/changing management etc. make it necessary). So I'm not completely blanket anti union, I just don't feel that having a union helps nurses to be seen as degreed professionals. Physicians don't strike, for example. There are other ways to negotiate a contract and ensure patient safety. Picketing around a building while risking the lives of patients inside is not, to my way of thinking, the most appropriate way.

 

[birdiesunshine]

Why the long AT&T rant? The question posed in the OP specifically was would you cross a picket line? A hypothetical question not necessarily related to a single situation.

Frankly, after reading your post it makes me less sympathetic. You all have it pretty good and after reading what some of the non union AT&T people have posted here about their health benefits it all sounds ridiculous. I'm hoping that is not the full story.

No one is asking for sympathy.

I apologize as I am only the husband and am not to familiar with the language on the forum. I specifically was referring to the people commenting directly to the AT&T portion of the post. I do realize the original title was asking whether or not to cross a picket line.

What specifically is ridiculous ? I don't know what you mean.

 

[npmommie]

As a nurse, I would certainly cross a picket line. My dad isn't thrilled by the prospect, being on a teamster pension, but we do very different jobs. Personally, I was never forced to join a union and would never voluntarily do so as a nurse (I joined Actors Equity when I was younger, and as eeore's butterfly stated, as an entertainer the work conditions/changing management etc. make it necessary). So I'm not completely blanket anti union, I just don't feel that having a union helps nurses to be seen as degreed professionals. Physicians don't strike, for example. There are other ways to negotiate a contract and ensure patient safety. Picketing around a building while risking the lives of patients inside is not, to my way of thinking, the most appropriate way.

Nurse here that did go on strike. When our hospital decided to put the safety of patients LAST it was because of the courage of the nurses who decided to put patient safety FIRST and stand up to them and fight for what we believe in that things changed. We had the support of the entire community, we had people on the picket line with us from police, to doctors, to political leaders. We had the support because we were standing up for something that was right.
the contract language we fought for and got did pave the way for other nurse contracts to get the same thing.
to say that the nurses risk the lives of patients if they go on strike is so far off base

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

It sounds like you have good pay and good benefits that man people would give an arm and a leg for. Yes, they made a profit last year. That is what companies aim to do. It sounds like the main point of contention (from your post) is health care, from what I can follow you will have to start paying premiums as well as copays. That makes sense to me. Another person has posted on this thread about her husband who is a non union employee of AT&T and how the union health care has meant that their health care is absolutely terrible and her family was put in a hard financial position because of it. From the sounds of it (and granted that was only one side) it sounds like what is happening is the non union employees are getting screwed so that you only have to pay copays. Striking over a change in that does seem ridiculous in my opinion. Unless they are making it so it is completely unaffordable or covers nothing.

The plain and simple truth is that we are in a recession. For a company to come out on top (make a profit) they have to be looking down the line at what the economy may bring. Right now many companies are putting down hiring freezes, laying off substantial numbers of employees, etc. My mom works as a microbiologist in a hospital and right now all staff members are taking unpaid furloughs to try to balance the budget. The next step is massive lay offs and my mom may lose her job because they will be forced to outsource the lab. So if paying more for health care is your only worry, count yourself lucky. Maybe through the strike you will get what you want, but at what cost? If the economy continues to go south the company may be forced to save money in other ways- such as laying off employees. Better to have a job and pay a premium for health care than have no job at all and therefore no health care at all.

Now, if this was about the safety issue posted earlier that I could understand a little more.

 

[MoniqueU]

Yes any chance I could get I would. I made it a point to grocery shop at the grocery stores that were on strike here in CA just to cross the picket lines. I detest unions.