Communication Workers Advocate

Communication Workers Advocate

Together We Are One…Divided We Are Done!

CWA Local 3406

611 St. John Street Lafayette, Louisiana

Phone 337-233-2847

(Periodical #10 02/18/2010 AT& Mobility)

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A UNION MEETING IS HELD THE 1ST TUESDAY OF EVERY MONTH @6:00 P.M.

The Employee Free Choice Act: Be sure to contact your US Congressman and Senators to voice your interest in the Employee Free Choice Act. Passage of this bill could potentially lead to more bargaining power. AT&T Management would no longer be able to claim, they need us, the employees, to give some benefits back, in order for AT&T to be able to compete with the companies that have a non-unionized workforce.

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Visit the local website!

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT! WEAR RED ON THURSDAYS!

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NOTICE:

You, as an AT&T Employee, will need to help us help you! Please document dates, times, whom you spoke to, what about, what was said, was the issue addressed, obtain any documentation, etc., etc., etc., on anything that you feel may be an issue that needs to be looked into further or is something that you think might place you on a discipline. This recorded information will assist in your grievance.

Also, if you are in a “COACHING” session & you feel the “COACHING” is instead a Q&A session about an incident that you were involved in, ask for union representation. You have that right under the Weingarten Rights.

Also, when filing a grievance, please be sure to explain on the grievance form what it is you are grieving & why you are grieving it, being specific as possible along with all relevant details.

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Every calendar quarter there is a Work Relations Committee (WRC-see pg.55 of your 2006 Regional Labor Agreement booklet) meeting between the Lafayette AT&T Wireless Call Center’s Directors/Company Mgmt. and select representatives from the Local 3406. These meetings are held to address issues that may arise between the ratification of the most recent union agreement (March 2006) & the future renewal of our next agreement(March 2010) The union stewards ask that if there is an item you would like discussed, please present this issue, in writing, to a union steward. There is a list of Stewards on the Bulletin Board in the Internet Café by the glass doors. The stewards will attempt to set up a table in the Internet Café area approximately 1 week before this meeting to gather up this input from the representatives. Then approximately 1 week after this WRC meeting the union stewards will try to re-establish the table again to inform the representatives of the proceedings that took place at that WRC meeting & to release a new periodical. Here are some of th items discussed at the WRC Meeting that was held on February. 11, 2010. The next meeting has not been scheduled yet.

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Visit the local website!

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT! WEAR RED ON THURSDAYS!

HEADLINES FROM THE WORK RELATIONS COMMITTEE MEETING 02/11/2010

End of Labor Agreement: Technically not discussed at the WRC, but to make everyone aware, the Labor Agreement was scheduled to expire on 03/26/2010. District/National CWA & AT&T have agreed to extend the Labor Agreement until 04/16/2010. Bargaining will begin on 03/29/2010. Please visit the website for the latest on the Labor Agreement Bargaining.

Dress Code Review Request: CWA Local asked the Call Center Mgmt. Group to review the possibility of allowing employees to where “AT&T” logo hats on a daily basis with the usual current dress code still being applied as it is now for the weekends. A review will be made. This item will be left open.

Separation Process: CWA issued a reminder to Mgmt. to make sure that all Mgmt. Staff is adequately trained & prepared to go over a full review of all materials with employees that are being released.

West & South Central Sat. Time Off: This is an item that was discussed at previous WRC’s & at this time continues to be an open agenda item. A bargaining suggestion form was submitted by a CWA Local 3406 Job Steward to add Sat. & Sun. protection to our Labor Agreement. Mgmt. will continue to review the subject. This item will be left open again.

Air Quality: AT&T had one of their environmental health officers down from Dallas, TX. Air test were taken. The results were not in a range that are hazardous to your health, but the levels though have resulted in the E.H.O to set up a scheduling of further test on a quarterly basis to continue to monitor the levels of various elements in the indoor air. In the meantime, the windows on the building have gone through a resealing process in an effort to control moisture problems. If you do see a leak, please report to your team manager via email, carbon copy a union steward, or even email Cindy Elwell directly, again carbon copying a union steward & be civil with the emails. As of 02/11/2010 there have been no additional air quality test performed since November 2009. This item will remain open again.

Visit the local website!

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT! WEAR RED ON THURSDAYS!

FMLA

Issue about what exactly is the process to report FMLA absence if one is already at work. It was advised that the process is to log out of your phone, call your ops desk from the company phone, & then log out of KRONOS/MY TIME. This is not considered work avoidance or an FSLA violation. CWA asked that the Mgmt. group send out a refresher email of the process.

CWA also discussed the tracking of the FMLA time. It is the responsibility of the employee to keep track of FMLA usage. However, in reality, certain times of duress can occur where people can lose count of where they stand. CWA brought up the displeasure over the website for HR Onestop/Benefits not being able to display accurate information for the employees. CWA suggested that they add an additional field of information into the website showing time that is pending to the employee so that the employee can see approved time plus the pending time so that they can add the two together to see a more accurate reflection of the FMLA time that an employee has left. A CWA Local Officer brought in reference on how this works in the landline division & will be forwarding information to the Mobility HR Dept. so that they can review. This item will be left open until the next WRC.

Safety Committee: This was brought up by CWA again & used the example of the recent shooting incident that occurred at our Orlando, FL facility on the reason of need for a safety committee. Though these types of committees probably cannot prevent work place violence, it goes a long way in making employees aware of what to do in certain situations & the process in which to go about reporting issues.

Tipping off of Termed Employees: Advised the company that there were no additional examples of this situation. CWA will remain vigilant on this subject.

Visit the local website!

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT! WEAR RED ON THURSDAYS!

Business Department

(Several items were discussed)

#1: The lack of professionalism displayed by the desk was brought up. CWA was advised by Mgmt. that an opening & closing call format is being implemented along with some other call quality measurements being put into place such as Quality Analysis being performed by the Team Managers. We ask that you please report any negative experiences to a Union Steward so that we can document the examples. The desk reps will only be required to give their 1st name since currently none of the reps handling that desk have the same 1st name. Please record the name of the rep assisting you & document the situation. Being denied something is not an example. We are strictly looking for the examples where the reps are extremely rude & unprofessional.

#2: Exchange Time Policy was brought up to inquire about the same day exchange time limitation of 2 hours. There was an immediate update made by the operations area manager during the WRC to remove this limitation from the policy.

#3: An inquiry was made into the email sent to the floor advising on how Small Business Activations Support (SBAS) was to no longer transfer rate plan change or feature change type calls to Small Business Key Contacts (SBKC), but to instead assist with the changes for the customer. CWA questioned on whether or not the SBAS reps had ever or adequately been trained on the subject matter of reviewing previous voice & data usage & the ability to interpret such usage in aiding a customer to make an informed decision on any potential changes. CWA expressed concern for potential negative impact on customer satisfaction scores & other relevant scoring mechanisms surrounding this subject. Mgmt. responded by advising that they will put in a plan of action to hold approximately a 30 minute team huddle/training session to review for all employees.

Visit the local website!

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT! WEAR RED ON THURSDAYS!

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**DID YOU KNOW**

AT&T Revenue

2005: Net Income 4.786 Billion. 2006: Net Income 7.356 Billion.

2007: Net Income 11.951 Billion. 2008: Net Income 12.867 Billion.

2009: Net Income is projected to be 12.688 Billion.

You can review this information on Yahoo in the financial section about AT&T’s Revenue. Just type in the stock symbol “T” & go to the “Income Statement”.

We don’t want the company. We want a “Just Reward” for our hard work in helping AT&T to be very profitable. Bargaining is coming up. Visit the website

Together We Are One…Divided We Are Done!