--AT&T Downsizing Jeopardizes Quality Service, CWA Charges --

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• April 30, 1999
  ----The Communications Workers of America is in discussion with AT&T over the proposed downsizing of 2,400 to 3,000 technicians who maintain the AT&T network nationwide.
  ----The company has made no public announcement and CWA currently has not been given details about exact locations and jobs to be affected. Discussions, however, are continuing.
  ----AT&T's move seriously jeopardizes service and puts the integrity of the network at risk, said CWA Vice President Jim Irvine, who is responsible for CWA's day-to-day operations with AT&T.
  ----AT&T is talking about eliminating half, or more, of the skilled technicians who maintain and monitor the AT&T network nationwide. Clearly, losing this many skilled employees will have a detrimental impact on quality service. AT&T already has cut its workforce to the bone. Now it proposes getting rid of the very people responsible for AT&T's reputation for quality and for generating a 39 percent increase in first-quarter profits this year.
  ----When AT&T purchased cable giant Tele-Communications Inc., we hoped that AT&T would elevate the inferior quality of the cable companies. What we didn't expect is that AT&T instead would lower its own standards as it continues to invest tens of billions of dollars in an effort to dominate that industry.
  ----But that's exactly what's happening. By cutting the jobs of the skilled employees responsible for the high quality service customers have come to expect, AT&T is degrading the quality of its network, the morale of its employees, and above all, a reputation that made it among the most profitable companies in the industry."

http://www.nytimes.com/specials/downsize/glance.html
http://www.aocfi.org/news/11-12-2004_2.html
http://www.cwa-union.org/news/page.jsp?itemID=27351126