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IBEW Rejects AT&T's Contract Extension Proposal February 12, 2002 International President Edwin D. Hill recently announced that the IBEW rejected the proposal by AT&T to extend the current contract, but stood ready to begin negotiations at any time prior to the scheduled kickoff of contract talks on March 11, 2002. The contract between the IBEW and AT&T expires on May 11. "AT&T makes it sound like they are offering our members pie in the sky, but in reality it is more like a pie in the face," President Hill said. The company issued a press release on February 7 saying that an extension would give workers "greater stability in wages and benefits until the economy and the telecommunications industry show signs of improvement." The IBEW charges that these false promises do nothing to increase job security during hard economic times. In a February 6 letter to the IBEW and the Communications Workers of America (CWA), AT&T officials admitted as much saying that "This is a time of downsizing, not job growth," and indicated there would be further reductions in both union-represented and management jobs in 2002. In this atmosphere, the promise of wage and benefit increases does not look so good. The IBEW believes that AT&T is clearly trying to shift its costs for terminating employees to the pension fund. In its extension proposal, the company sought to use pension funds to pay for severance benefits instead of using general funds as required under the current contract. This essentially means that workers would be paying for their own layoff. This shows the deceit of the company's claims that their proposal would increase termination benefits by as much as 500%, a figure that the IBEW believes must have been borrowed from Enron's accountants. To use their pensions as a buffer against job loss, workers would have to qualify under IRS age rules or suffer huge penalties for early withdrawals. Workers under 59 would see the value of their pension drop significantly, or be forced to wait until reaching that age to receive benefits. "Either way, it's a bad deal for our members," said Robert Morrison, Chairman of the IBEW's System Council T-3 representing some 1,000 AT&T workers. Joseph Penna, Director of the IBEW's Telecommunications Department in Washington, D.C., said that the union asked the company if it would guarantee that there would be no layoffs during the term of a contract extension. AT&T refused. The IBEW wants a fair agreement that addresses our members' concerns about their job security. The IBEW questions what will happen to our members if AT&T sells off their consumer services division. Will our members be covered by a successor clause that will enable them to retain their jobs? AT&T has stated that they have no interest in successor clauses. The false promises of an extension are no substitute for serious negotiations on these and other issues affecting union workers at AT&T.
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