SBC workers set to strike

[davsand]

http://www.cwa-union.org/news/PressReleaseDisplay.asp?ID=427

Communications Workers Set Strike at SBC Involving 100,000 Workers at 12:01 a.m. Friday May 21

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Communications Workers of America announced that a 4-day strike involving 100,000 union employees of SBC in 13 states will begin at 12:01 a.m. local time in each time zone on Friday, May 21. Workers will return to their jobs at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, May 25.

Among key issues in the contract dispute, CWA members are seeking to strengthen their employment security, including gaining access to new jobs in growth areas of the company, and to preserve their health care benefits in the face of substantial cost-shifting demands by SBC management..."

snip

"CWA members, who have lost 29,000 jobs at SBC over the past three years, are seeking access to the new growth jobs in Internet data services, installation of Wi-Fi hotspots, voice over the Internet (VOIP), DSL broadband and other areas. Virtually all of this SBC work, amounting to thousands of jobs, is being outsourced, including going offshore to countries such as India and the Philippines.

"SBC continues to refuse to give this work to our members, the frontline workers who have built SBC into the nation's most profitable telecom company," said Bahr. SBC's profits last year were more than $8 billion.

CWA also noted that SBC's latest bargaining proposal called for members to receive no base wage increase upon settlement, but instead receive a one-time lump sum payment of 4 percent. A cash payment instead of a 3 percent base wage increase equates to a savings to SBC of more than $1 billion over four years.

"Incredibly, SBC wants to take $1 billion out of our members' pockets in wages, not to pay for rising health costs, but just to fatten its profits. At the same time, SBC is still demanding that workers also start paying tens of millions more out of pocket for their health care," Bahr stated..."



We need to support these folks.


Laura

[BayCityProgressive]

1. I support my

partner that is striking but this just stinks. I was unemployed and was supposed to start my new job there on Monday and now they are striking. Hopefully a contract is signed over the weekend.

[davsand]

3. Let's hope they do reah an agreement.

I'm sorry you are caught up in this--it sucks majorly--but I surely don't blame those workers for standing up to SBC on these issues. FWIW, we are organizing to find other unions to support that picket over the weekend. United we bargain, divided we beg.


Laura

[writekid]

2. a billion dollars isn't enough

SBC makes over a billion dollars in profit each year. "profit." god help those poor slobs who now want their workers to chip in for medical benefits.