The provisions of the recently bargained for Success Sharing Plan (SSP) s(which is based on the appreciation of AT&T stock) will  be paid out November 24, 2010.  The cash payout will be $298.50.

If you have any questions, please contact your supervisor or HROneStop on 1-888-722-1STP (1787).

 

 

The Company met with the Union today to informally notify us of a force disposition.   They announced to the Union that there is a declining workload,  and the Union has asked many questions.  We are awaiting AT&T's response.  We will be forthcoming with more details as soon as we have facts.   We have another meeting scheduled with the Company for Monday, September 20.

AT&T has notified the Union that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois will be the medical claims administrator for 2011 instead of United Healthcare.  

 

 For 2011, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) will be the medical claims administrator for the SNET Active Bargaining Unit Employee Health Plan – SNET POS, PPO/Non-PPO or ONA, as well as for the SNET POS, POS Alternative, ONA, ONA Alternative, PPO/Non-PPO or Medical Plan for Retirees options (including the MRP Alternative option) under the SNET Bargaining Unit Retiree Health Plan.

 

 

To check if your provider is part of the plan Click Here

 

 

 

In response to many questions from our members and retirees  regarding retiree healthcare we are attaching last years Annual enrollment booklet from the company and a letter that was sent to retirees regarding their 2010 enrollment.   AT&T would not bargain retiree healthcare with our local although the local was able to get the company to agree to establishing (HRA's) Health Care Reimbursement Accounts for all retirees.

 

The following deposits will be made into an HRA after ratification of a contract: 

All eligible retirees will have a HRA established with the following deposits  as soon after ratification as practicable.

                                    2010                2011

Individual                   $850                $150

Family                         $1700              $300

Also Please click Here for a copy of last years retiree enrollment booklet informing retires of their healthcare for 2010.   

 Click Here for Retiree letter from 2009 comparing plans- rates are subject to change each year. 

 

 

 

CWA 1298 District 1 is pleased to announce that Tentative Agreements have been reached for
both AT&T East and AT&T Advertising Solutions, after almost 18 months of contentious
bargaining. Both Memorandum of Understandings will be effective at 12:00 A.M. on April 5,
2009 and terminate April 7, 2012. As a committee, we stood our ground against all odds, and
pushed for what we felt was a fair contract that addressed the needs of our hard working
members. The bargaining Committee would also like to thank the business agents for their help
and support with the Department sub-committees. We would also like to thank Monique
LaBonte, Laurie Easton, and Brian LeBlanc who also helped on various sub-committees.

August 26, 2010 Core Bargaining Highlights Aqua Turf Southington

6:00 -9:00 P.M.

August 28, 2010 Core Bargaining Highlights The Oakdale in Wallingford

11:00 AM - 2:00 PM

August 30, 2010 Yellow Pages North Haven Holiday Inn

6:00 - 8:00 P.M.

We unanimously recommend this agreement for ratification. 

In Unity,

President Bill Henderson                                  District 1 Assistant to the President Dennis Trainor

Treasurer Glenn Kalata                                    Staff Representative Pat Telesco

Secretary Miriam DiNicholas                           Vice President Rich Benham

Vice President Bob Cullen                                Vice President Louise Gibson

Vice President Tonya Hodges                            Vice President  Dave Weidlich

            Here are some of the highlights on the key issues of the new tentative agreement.

Click Here for AT&T East Highlights

Click Here for AT&T Advertising Solutions (Yellow Pages) Highlights

 

 

CWA Local 1298, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Mary Healy from the Office of Consumer Counsel  have spent the last year at DPUC hearings advocating for better telecommunication service quality for consumers in Connecticut. 

Although it was proven in hearings that AT&T has violated at least one key standard,  fixing 90 percent of the out-of-service phones within 24 hours since 2001,  the DPUC disappointed us terribly in a decision this week by not forcing at&t to pay fines for failing to meet current service quality standards and not strengthening those standards for all telecommunication companies.

Today in an unprecedented move,  the DPUC imposed a Civil penalty of $1,210,000 against AT&T for "consistently failing to meet the requirement of the 90% of all service repairs received by the Telco in any given 24 hour period to be cleared within 24 hours".

The result of this work and our determination, is a message that even the AT&T corpoarate barons can hear in their executive suites- provide quality service or be prepared to pay!  

Our people can make AT&T the best communications provider in the state- but we need the people to get the job done!

Click Here for DPUC Order
 

 

Click Here for More from NBC
 

 

Click Here for New Haven Register
 

 

Click Here for Hartford Courant

 AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson,  takes a bonus and sees his compensation rise by one-third to $20.2 million, according to Associated Press calculations on a regulatory filing Thursday, March 11. To read more on this pleaseClick Here

Affected Members: 

East, Midwest, Legacy T, Southeast, Southwest, West & Mobility Labor groups

 Purpose:

To provide notice of incorrect Payroll Deduction Tax Status Codes applied to some health plan coverage(s)    

 Why/Rationale:

Due to a processing error at the AT&T Benefits Center, incorrect tax status codes were applied to the Medical, Dental, Vision and/or CarePlus plans, impacting some active bargained employee’s January paychecks. Tax status codes were inadvertently switched from what the participant elected at Annual Enrollment (e.g. from pre-tax to after-tax or after-tax to pre-tax). This error will be corrected with the first paycheck in February.  This Labor Notice by AT&T was meant for information.

Impacted participants will receive a letter explaining the error and impact to their first February paycheck.

Details: Impact: 2519

 East                     2                                             

Midwest            1422    

Legacy T              19                                            

Southeast            30

Southwest            47                                

West                  330                                          

Mobility              669                                              

The Company has notified the Union that their system fix has been completed and communications to affected members regarding this problem should be  completed by January 22, 2010.

 

 

AT&T has declared a surplus of 154 members of CWA Local 1298.   The 1st step of the Process to alleviate the suplus as identified in Article VII of our contract, is the Enhanced Voluntary Severance Plan (EVSP)  Offer to all employees affected. The following timeline applies:

STEP 1:

Enhanced Voluntary Severance Plan- Jan 6 & 7 Delivery of EVSP / (FTW Follow the work)  and EO/ERB  (Enhanced Offer/ Early Retirement Benefit) Packages delivered to all employees on job within the affected pools.  The EO/ERB will be offered only to employees whose work has left and who are retirement eligible.

IMPORTANT DEADLINE: 

EVSP, FTW & EO/ERB forms must be received by January 20, 2010 12:00 P.M.(Noon) Wednesday.

If a surplus still exists after the EVSP applications have been tallied, the Company will notify the Union on January 21,2010 of its intent to initiate the Voluntary  Re-Deployment Process. 

STEP 2: 

The Voluntary Redeployment Process Begins January 21, 2010 and ends February 4, 2010

Special Transfers must be submitted at this time and qualifications are required in order to be eligible. Union Headquarters offers pre-testing workshops to help you qualify for  these jobs.  Please call 203-288-5271 and ask for the Training for Success Department in order to schedule your class today!

Testing will be conducted by the Transfer Bureau. Your Transfer Bureau Profile may be requestd at 203-771-7050 or call Training for Success, as profiles have been made available to the Union.

STEP 3: 

Bumping Process within pools:  February 5, 2010

Surplused titles are grouped with other titles in the EEO job groups within their entity in seniority order, and marked "S" or "L" in inverse seniority order.  At this time employees will have an opportunity to select the job of more junior employees in the pool who are designated for layoff. Again,  Transfer Bureau Basic Qualifications are required to bump. 

STEP 4: 

Guaranteed Job Offers and Force Disposition February 19 &  February 22, 2010

IF a surplused employee is unable to meet the basic qualification of available positions or vacancies are not available, the Company will extend a Guaranteed Job Offer (GJO). This is an alternative to a Layoff and is voluntary.  The Company as announced that Premises Technician will be a GJO for the Network Services Surplus, and the union is waiting to hear what the additional GJO positions will be.  Employees have 24 hours to accept or reject 

Employees who reject the GJO will be Layed off and the last day on the payroll will be Fefruary 23, 2010.  Severance will be based on the EVSP table; and includes 6 - months medical.  

The Union will be posting Surplus Pools Lists and Q&A's as soon as they are made available by the Company. Please Click Here for Lists

 

The Company notified the Union that they will be declaring a surplus effective January 6, 2010, in the following Company Defined entities and job titles:

BCS   

D14       Telephone Sales Specialists 6

Consumer Group  

E17  General Office Associate  1

Network Services

D14    Service Consultant  2

E16     Database Assurance Spec-E911     2

           Network Translator     24

 E16 Total   26

E17 General Office Associate  2

E18 Service Representative -OCC    33

F11  Installation / Repair Technician 80

Network Services Total      143

Purchasing & Logistics    

E17  Auto Messenger   1

        Mail Service Messenger  4

        Material Logistics  Assistant  1

E17  Total                  6

G13   Supplies Attendant     4

Purchasing & Logistics Total          10

Grand Total 160

The Company anticipates that there will not be enough jobs available to offer to surplused employees and therefore intends to layoff bargaining unit employees.  The Company will provide a Guaranteed Job Offer (GJO) as was bargained in the Commitment of Employment Security outlined in the 2004 Labor Agreement.  At this time the Company is not able to identify what the GJO will be.  Effective January 6, 2010, the Company will offer the Enhanced Voluntary Severance Plan (EVSP) to all incumbents in the impacted pools within the entities listed above.  Meetings will be held with the appropriate groups on Wednesday and Thursday  January 6 and 7, 2010.

It has been proven at the DPUC that AT&T's Customer - No - Service is directly impacted by the number of technicians in the field.  Tomorrow, January 5, oral arguments will be heard and AT&T will do their best to convince the DPUC that they should not be held to these standards.  Our Members should call the DPUC give their opinions on what AT&T will do with customer service if they are allowed to have their way.

 The DPUC can be reached at 860-827-1553

or 1-800-382-4586

 

Our members have identified multiple problems with their choices for annual enrollment.  Some of the major problems include:

·       Members who called in to receive their packages by mail, rather than to have to look on the internet, did not receive their packages in a timely manner. 

·       Calculations for the Supplemental Disability Insurance were incorrect for all members. 

·        Also we have identified two work groups that were given incorrect medical options.

Due to the many issues at hand, the AT&T has agreed to extend the annual enrollment deadline to December 31 and will be sending a letter on December 4 with a worksheet that will include the correct calculations as well as inform you of the new deadline.    The company has advised the union that the website will not be up after the December 3 deadline and it will be necessary to call in your 877-722-0020.   With respect to those that may have dropped coverage as a result of the higher rates, since this is a 1/1/2010 change, if you make the same or lower election for 1/1/2010 as what they were enrolled in for 2009, health screening will not be required.   If this is somehow triggered in error, the company has agreed to correct it, as long as it is an annual enrollment change.

 

 

Information

The EyeMed website now displays your last date of service and your next eligible date for services.

Additional Information

When you log in go to "> My Benefits" and the following screen will display with the applicable dates.  Any dependents less than 18 years old will be listed under “> My Benefits”.        Website :  www.eyemedvisioncare.com Below is an example of the eligibility information the website will provide Eligibility Information as of Oct 27, 2009   Service Member is Eligible? Last Service Date Member Eligible As Of* Exam Yes 06/06/2008 06/06/2009 Frames No 06/06/2008 06/06/2010 Lenses Yes 06/06/2008 06/06/2009 Contacts Yes   06/06/2009     In addition, you can now order ID cards on line as well, by going to "> Order ID Cards".

The Company held their meetings with employees who are directly affected in the Surplus / Layoff yesterday September 23 and Today September 24 where they attempted to answer questions that our members and the Union had for them.  It is still incomprehensible that a company this large who forecasts every detail still has no idea what the GJO will be.   It isn't even clear whether the question regarding GJO was asked in every Department.  It appears this may not be the case, especially when Labor Relations couldn't answer that question at our meeting today. Instead of an answer, the reply was "I'll take that back".  Yesterday Attorney General Richard Blumenthal Held a Press Conference at the Medway in Meriden regarding more  Please Click Here for his Press Release.  

For more news click links below:

eyewitness news

reuters

money news

The Day

The Company Notified the Union today September 21,  of an existence of a surplus condition .   As of this moment the company anticipates that there will not be enough jobs available to offer and intends to follow the layoff path that is defined in our contract under Article VII. of our Contract.  Effective September 23, the Company will offer the Enhanced Voluntary Severance Plan (EVSP) to all incumbants in the impacted pools within the entities affected. 

More meetings will be held on September 23 with the company where we will have more information to follow.

Click Here for Titles and Entities Affected.

Meetings will be held tomorrow Wednesday  September 23, 2009 Please click here   for the schedule.

Only employees directly impacted (marked s or l)will be attending these informational meetings.   

All employees in the job pools affected will be receiving an EVSP offer.  

The company has provided the following Q&A's to the union and we have followed up with an information request with many more.  We are waiting for the company to respond. 

Pool list of all titles after NCS tie breaker are available Here

Process for Surplus Click Here

 

Many  technical difficulties were experienced during the the 2nd National E-Meeting.  A broadcast has been made available to all who wish to  watch our 2nd AT&T Unity e-Meeting.  Please visit http://www.cwa-union.org/emeeting to watch an archived version of this broadcast.

 

The following URL's are on the web.  Just an example of how AT&T Delivers the World: Click on the  Links Below for more info:

 

Attorney General Says AT&T Violated State Consumer Service Standards

AT&T Moves from San Antonio to Dallas

AT&T's Annual Report -Page 16 Discusses the purchase of Executive Homes

AT&T Third Party Administrator Sedgwick CMS

Sedgwick Sues Owner of the Website above - it may be discontinued!

 

If you have any links to stories that will illustrate how AT&T is delivering our World (and we don't mean their corporate Logo advertised on Tiger Woods Golf Bag), Please send the any links to mrivera@cwa1298.org.

 

 

AT&T officially notified the Union that a surplus condition exists in Yellow Pages, and that they intend to follow the layoff path as described in Article VII of the Contract. The Account Representatives in the D14 pool have been identified as the impacted pool.    As is provided for in the Yellow Page Labor Agreement, in order to relieve the surplus the company shall follow the following steps:

• Offer the voluntary exit incentive program with payment provisions  (EVSP)as described in the contract.  All applications to request the EVSP must be in by noon, April 13th, 2009.  Requesting the EVSP does not guarantee approval, the Company will determine this, however, the once a member has applied for the EVSP that decision will be deemed as irrevocable.  The Company has agreed to notify the Union daily of EVSP approvals.

• If a surplus condition still exists at the conclusion of the voluntary exit program, the Company will notify the Union on April 14, 2009 of its intent to initiate the Voluntary Re-Deployment Process which will last a minimum of 15 days.   This process is available to all incumbants in surplused titles.  The process will make open positions to qualified employees identified for surplus on a seniority basis.  The company has identified twelve (12) openings in the Telephone Sales Position and no testing will be required for Account Representatives to Qualify.

• There will also be no bumping in this process.

• If, at the conclusion of the voluntary re-deployment process, further force adjustments are deemed necessary by the Company, the Company shall again provide the Union with formal written notification as to its intent to introduce layoffs no earlier than fifteen (15) days from date of notification.

At the meeting where AT&T announced their intent President Henderson wasted no time in telling the company that this was corporate greed at its finest.  This is clearly poor planning at the expense of the employees.  While revenues may be down in Yellow Pages a very good point was made by  one union brother "if we (AT&T) are truly interested in getting new business, we need adequate employees to do this work.  AT&T as a whole made billion dollars in profits and the choice to lay off employees during such economic times is despicable.

The Union is also in the process of compiling a list of frequently asked questions and answers which will be made available on this web page.

Frequently Asked Q&A's

 

All Bargained-for Employees Covered by the SBC (AT&T)East/CWA Local 1298 2004 Labor Agreement - excluding Premises Technicians under Appendix F will have a $350 payout for 2008. Details of the agreement can be found on page 34 & 35 of the contract. 

• Regular employees with at least one year of continuous service as of December 31, 2008 are eligible for the award. 
• Eligible regular part-time employees will receive prorated payments, based on their part-time classification on December 31,  2008.
• For those employees who are separated for any reason other than cause, the payment will be prorated.
• Payments will also be prorated to exclude any continuous periods of absence exceeding 30 days in the year 2008 except for absences due to an on-the-job injury.

Eligible employees will be receiving the TPA payment on February 20th.

 

 

Employees will have until 4:00 P.M. on Thursday January 15, 2009 to complete required transfer bureau testing and to submit specially marked transfer requests to the transfer bureau to indicate their interest in the available job. This voluntary redeployment process will be completed by January 20, 2009.  

The company has supplied the union with some  corrected pool list as soon as the other lists are available the union will post on the web site.

AT&T officially notified the Union that a surplus condition exists for some job titles and company defined entities.  They have notified the union of their intent to introduce layoffs to relieve the surplus condition.  (Article VII).   If a surplus condition still exists after the EVSP the company will notify the union January 5, 2009 of its intent to initiate the Voluntary Re-Deployment Process .  Requesting the EVSP offer does not guarantee approval to receive the EVSP, the company will determine this.  AT&T  has agreed to post daily tallys which will sent to all supervisors to share with the affected employees.  The union is in the process of compiling a list of frequently asked questions and answers which will be made available on this web page  asoon.  In addition we have requested a list of all employees in all the pools by NCS Date which will be made available on this web page as soon as we receive it.

  Pool List by Seniority

Follow the Work Offers

Surplusing Tmeline December 2008

Day 1  12/11/2008 Thur  Formal Declaration of Surplus (Layoff Path):

• Employee Meetings (Impacted members marked S/L)
• EVSP Offer to all incumbents in Pools(release dates TBD)
• EO/ERB Packages to eligible employees
• FTW Packages to eligible employees

Day 8  12/18/2008 Thursday

• EO/ERB packages delivered to employees

Day 20 12/30/2008 Tuesday

• EVSP/ FTW/ EO-ERB Response is due by Noon  / "Pool"/ off payroll date will be detrermined by the department

Day 26  1/5/2009 Monday

• Initiate Voluntary Re-deployment Process
• Packages (including process and listing of available jobs) sent to all members in Surplused Titles in impacted Entities. 

Day 35 1/14/2009  Wednesday

• TB Deadline for receipt of Transfer Request

Day 36  1/15/2009 Thursday

• TB Starts Making offers to available jobs

Day 40  1/19/2009 Monday

Voluntary Re-deployment Process ends

Day 41  1/20/2009 Tuesday

• Company will notify union they the will proceed with layoff by Force Disposition Date
• Initiate Bumping Process within pools

Day 61  2/9/2009 Monday

• Force Disposition Date (FDD)

Day 62   2/10/2009 Tuesday

• Company will extend the Guaranteed Job Offer to employees designated for layoff ("L")(Customer Information Services of PremTechnician)

• Employees will have 24 hours to respond to the GJO

Day 63  2/11/2009  Wednesday

• Accept/ Reject GJO
• Accept - negotiate release date
• Reject- off payroll with layoff (EVSP Table) Severence

 

 

 

 

Connecticut President Ramona Carlow believes we are providing quality service at AT&T.   She sent a message about how good our customer service is and how they treat our employee's fairly.  In addition, she invites you to contact her with any questions and comments.

Local 1298 would ask you to share examples of the poor customer service you are forced to provide and take time to remind her that while  she states AT&T is treating employees fairly  - we call it following the contract.  Make no mistake if the guaranteed job offer,voluntary severance offer, follow the work offer, were not collectively bargained for, these opportunities would not be offered out of the goodness of their heart.

AT&T has hired the renowned Crisis Management Consulting Team  Fleishman - Hilliard a Public Relations Firm.  Interestingly, a new survey by this team found that 76 % of American consumers believe that a company's treatment of its employees plays a big role in consumer purchasing decisions.  Fleishman-Hilliard's CEO, John Graham says:  "If companies want to maintain and strengthen their reputations, it will be essential for them to invest actively and visibly in their employees."

AT&T should take the advice of their high priced consultants, address the issue of good customer service and recognize that outsourcing Connecticut jobs is not a good business solution for the State of Connecticut or their customers.

Unfortunately, AT&T's priorities are not Jobs and Customer Service as reflected in Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson's  **Quote of the week*

There are a number of things that set AT&T apart.  Our company has premier assets, a sound balance sheet, solid cash flow and an excellent record of returning value to shareowners. These fundamentals, combined with an intense focus on execution, provide a solid foundation for AT&T's future.

Ramona Carlows Contact Information

Email  rc2586@att.com

work 203-771-5748

cell # 203-988-4889

 

As a result of many phone calls from members,  CWA Local 1298 has found that AT&T is conducting a dependent "gap" Audit, and the plan particiants in the audit consist of:

• Those who were not audited in the prior audit
• OR those who added dependents since the last audit (new hires, births, marriages etc.)
• OR those were included in the last audit, but their dependent was not determined to be eligible.  In such cases, those dependents were dropped.  If the re-enrolled those individualls are included in the audit.

 

 

Annual Enrollment has ended. All plan participants should receive a confirmation from AT&T either in the U.S. Mail or by email. Please confirm all of your options- if you need to make changes, the Correction period begins October 27, and ends November 7. Call the AT&T Benefits Center with any questions and corrections at 877-722-0020.

 

Attorney General Blumenthal and President Bill Henderson

AT&T has been downsizing since 2001.  Over one thousand jobs have been eliminated in Connecticut, since that time.  As a result service levels have declined. 

 

Our members deal with unsatisfied customers on a daily basis, but are not allowed to care for the customer as we once did.  We are the same workers who once received awards and accommodations for providing excellent customer service, including the JD Power Award.

 

It is time for AT&T to stop making excuses and invest in customer service needs right here in Connecticut.

 

Attorney General Blumenthal said “The DPUC should delay no longer holding AT&T accountable for its absolutely appalling disrespect for consumers and disregard for the law.  The company’s eight-year uninterrupted record of failing minimum standards—including timely repair of non-functioning lines—is outrageous and unconscionable.  AT&T needs to be taught how to answer its own phones and keep its lines working.”

More Pictures

 

CWA National has responded to all AT&T Telecom Vice Presidents and AT&T Local Presidents with their message to all AT&T members from CWA:

 

CLICK HERE FOR RESPONSE

AT&T officially notified the union that a surplus condition still exists for the titles listed HERE.  The company has revised the time line because the offerings were not in alignment see- TIMELINE

Important Note 

*Exlorer 6.0 requires a save before download

Transfer Bureau testing must be completed by 4:00 PM, March 6, 2008

and “Surplus” Transfer Requests must be received by the Transfer Bureau

by  4:00 PM, March 6, 2008

 

AS OF FEBRUARY 26, 2008 THE COMPANY HAS IDENTIFIED THE FOLLOWING AVAILABLE POSITIONS

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR VOLUNTARY RE-DEPLOYMENT PROCESS

 

 

 

 

Citizens of Connecticut  deserve Connecticut workers to represent their communications needs               

•  Local 1298 is protesting  AT&T  decision to  move call center    work out of Connecticut 
•  AT&T makes profits in Connecticut and must be committed to invest in job growth in Connecticut  

CWA Local 1298 urges all members to contact: 

TALKING POINTS   Please use these talking points in your conversations  - Ask Governor Rell and our lawmakers for help!  Friends, Family and neighbors can take action  and support the work here!

• Governor Jodi Rell   CALL 1-800-406-1527 and  follow up with an email to governor.rell@ct.gov  
• The DPUC  1-800-382-4586   Call the Commissioners Office at 860-827-2802 and the DPUC's Telecommunications Office at 860-827-2671   (Sample Letter for Governor Rell)
• Contact your State and Federal Legislators, and Local Officials that can be located by entering your zip code  Here
• wfsb news coverage
• wtnh news coverage
• wtic news coverage

The at&t bargaining unit in Connecticut is comprised of many different job titles divided into five departments. Commercial Marketing, Customer Information Services, Headquarters, Plant 1 (Northern Connecticut) Plant 2(Southern Connecticut) are the various departments. Each Department is represented by one full-time vice-president as well as a full-time business agent, and a contingency of Chief Stewards, and Stewards. 

Most recently the SBC Telecom workers located in the Boston area  were folded into Legacy T(at&t).  These group of workers will be represented out of Plant 1.