To District 3 Presidents, E-board officers, and Members
It appears the Company continues to have it their way!
What is the point of our leadership soliciting our input if it is only going to fall on deaf ears! All the District Leaders agreed that they would not settle on something (a contract) that all the districts were not all comfortable with, we were assured. Explain to me, what is being gained in this tentative agreement? All I see is more concessions.
Look at what is happening! Health Care premiums, that will cancel out any wage increases! Nothing positive for retires? No titles brought into Core Contract. Like it was pointed out on more than one occasion, 2 tier wages or working conditions are not going to bring our union brothers and sisters any closer together. It started with NDA operators, then Utilities Techs. Next was Prem. Techs, which were voted down in District 3, soon after came Mobility folks selling land lines for half the wages of our Sales Associates. Now its leveraged pay titles, meaning all the new hires will be leveraged. Think carefully. Why did the company only want to allow the Premise tech title in the appendix of the contract, instead of the core contract? The reason is obvious, because they want to have the same work completed at half the cost, and don't want our brothers and sisters to have the same benefits and working conditions that we have fought for and achieved in the past. Now the Company is giving away more of responsibilities of our core members. In turn surplusing our Service Technicians. Do you really think they will ever catch up to the core employees, or will the core employees be gone and no longer care. Which title is next? If this continues everything we have will become extinct. The company will continue with this practice as long as we are too weak or too scared to challenge them.
With these concessions this time, can you imagine what we will be willing to give up in 3 years?
Do you have members that are hoping to retire someday? If we don't draw a line in the sand NOW, and stand strong for the young members, can you really expect the new bee's to concern themselves with a bunch of dinosaurs' retirement, when the dinosaurs' did not look out for them!
Are we going to allow the company to continue to chip away at the sculpture we have created over the last fifty years until all we have left is a pile of pebbles?
We need to stand as one now more than ever. NO MORE GIVE BACKS!