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AT&T Negotiations Update

December 2, 2005

At the National Table today, the Company addressed training issues (Workforce 21) and the CWA/IBEW/AT&T Scholarship program.  Their proposal is to drastically cut the number of awards our members' children are entitled to in the future (from 35 to 10), although the amount of each award would stay the same. The Company rejected the Union's proposal on "emerging and evolving technologies" language that would have helped our members to prepare to move into the work of the future.

The Company also responded to our demand for the same Neutrality and Card Check language that has worked so well between the Unions and SBC over the last few years. The Company proposal, which did expand the use of card check from what was in our previous agreement, did not come close to the language we proposed. This is very important if we are to enable all AT&T workers to be able to choose to be represented by a Union.

Today the Union also submitted a new Successorship proposal to protect us if the new AT&T chooses to sell off or transfer parts of the business. We also presented our Pension proposal. Our Pensions are not close to what they need to be to protect our standard of living when we retire. We also addressed what would happen if people transfer from one part of the new AT&T to another, when they are under different Pension Plans.