Posted by AT&T call center rep, a resident of another community, on Apr 10, 2012 at 8:39 pm

This article states "the average AT&T call center rep makes $107,000"... this fact is grossly misrepresented and completely false.

Even when you add health care benefits for a family of three, the annual income is still WAY,WAY under this amount. I WISH I made $107,000. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE AT&T spokesperson about union member wages. In fact they are trying to do away with how they pay service reps that were on payroll before the last contract negotiations.

Experienced call center service reps are under attack by AT&T.

Any new hires make significantly less and a HUGE portion of their pay is DEPENDENT on sales quotas that can be changed arbitrarily by AT&T at any time. That is not good for the customer when an employees' food on table for their family is dependent on up selling you on products you do not need.(for example: selling an unlimited long distance calling plan when all your business is local and you make less than 15 minutes in long distance calls a month for the past year)

AT&T spokesperson states in case of strike; "we have a substantial contingency workforce of well-trained managers and vendors in place."

These are the managers that depend on the union workforce to resolve complex service & billing issues; with a few exceptions, they are not the specialists, union workers are. When you speak wiht a manager who do you think does the work after you hang up with them? These "vendors" are the ones that mess up customer accounts daily. Vendors oversell products that customers do not need(see one example above, other are service affecting) which increases their bill an or disrupts servce. REAL AT&T service reps spend hours each day trying to correct and apologize for the errors and issues caused by vendors. AT&T upper management is well aware of ongoing issues with said vendors but cares more about the bottom line than the customer experience.

Please support CWA and the Union Members that work so very hard to bring the customer a great experience with AT&T despite the barriers put in place by upper management.

Posted by TX Resident, a resident of another community, on Apr 10, 2012 at 8:44 pm

I was speaking with my brother in law the other night and he said that the Union was preparing to strike because they wanted free health care and did not want to pay anything for the premiums. Can someone please clarify or give an example of the current health care costs that come out of a paycheck. Somehow, I dont believe that health care is completely free.

BTW, my brother in law is in upper management in Texas. This is what he believes.

Posted by AT&T Splicer, a resident of San Ramon, on Apr 11, 2012 at 9:21 am

I am a splicer for AT&T and here are the real facts. I only make $73,554 per year working 40 hours a week. The company forces us to work so much overtime that I end up making well over $100K but that is not base salary. With regards to benefits, in 2009 the union agreed that we would begin paying part of our medical expense because of the tough economy. Since then AT&T's profits have risen and we are fighting to get back to the 100% medical coverage we deserve. The CWA has fought for over 50 years to help workers like myself have a middle class life style and we can't let that be taken from us just because people are moving away from having land lines in their homes. If AT&T is making money we should get our fair share of it and that includes a sizable wage increase and getting back to 100% covered medical! We make AT&T land lines work and should be recognized for that.

Posted by Francis, a resident of another community, on Apr 13, 2012 at 3:25 am

As I watch the Verizon contracts talk, or therefore lack of, I am outraged at what that company is trying to do to the workers who built the company. Just because the economy is bad, a multi-BILLION dollar company has no right to use this fact as a catalyst for take-backs. That being said, the AT&T contract that took 500 days last time around ended as a result of concessions given by the union. And I see no reason for concessions to continue. I just hope AT&T doesn't go the greedy Verizon route and attempt to take advantage of a situation already in place. As a consumer, I chose to buy where workers are respected, and I chose to stop spending where they become not respected. Just to clarify, I am a white male in my 40's with no ties to this company or any union.