What’s Going on at AT&T? Recently AT&T announced an 11 County Declared State of Emergency in
California. Reportedly 69,000 customers with affected
service problems, 440
Cable failures,
4,000 special circuits down. The Company has told the Union
that they will be hiring another 250 temporary workers and an additional 60
contractors to supplement the work force, 20 of which are here
in Stockton.
Customer service is at
an all time low with commitments out as much as 18 days.
Here’s the Truth! This is a self induced “State of Emergency”. AT&T
has been cutting it’s
workforce
steadily for at least the last 5 years and supplementing them with
temporary, part time, term. and contracted employees to reduce their benefit
costs and keep their staffing at ridiculously low levels. Additionally,
they have
implemented unreasonable
productivity assessment standards that they feel
will allow them to continue to downsize by firing their full time vested
employees, apparently with the goal of attaining a disposable workforce.
AT&T West which used to be Pacific Bell has
gone from approximately
45,000 employees
to right around 20,000 to date. And while the States
population has increased and the Company’s network has expanded, AT&T
simply does not have enough employees to maintain their networks.
Why is this AT&T’s
direction? Two words
-WALL STREET; AT&T’s corporate greed and relentless
pursuit of profit is coming back to bite them. They have lost
sight of their
commitments to their
customers and forgotten that their employees and their
families are customers as well. AT&T has been moving jobs out of California
aggressively, which is contributing to the diminished economy here,
even though
the largest portion of
AT&T’s profits come from California. AT&T Mobility
has already snatched the brass ring by becoming the worst in customer service
according to Consumer Reports and it seems the wire-line part
of the business
is following suit.
Here’s the kicker! AT&T basically lied to the CPUC (California Public Utilities
Commission) by telling
us that they
would increase employment and provide marked improvements in customer
service, so they
could get DIVCA (Digital Infrastructure & Video Act of 2006) passed, so they could more easily compete in the video markets.
CWA has taken action and filed charges against AT&T with the CPUC, but we all need to be in this fight. Let’s
tell AT&T. “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!”
