Fourth-generation telecommunications worker says AT&T squandering a legacy

[Omaha Steve]

Marta was CWA (18 years) in 83. We stayed out the full 3 weeks of that strike mentioned in the story.

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4000

By Barb Kucera, Workday editor
9 April 2009

MINNEAPOLIS - By trying to slash health care benefits, AT&T is breaking its trust with the nearly 100,000 workers who have made the company profitable even in these tough economic times, Communications Worker Ed Davis said.

Davis, a member of CWA Local 7250, should know. He’s a fourth-generation telecommunications worker. His great-grandfather and grandfather were linesmen for the Bell System whose parent company was AT&T. They helped the company grow through the Great Depression and World War II. His mother was an operator and he is a customer sales and service specialist.


CWA member Ed Davis, a fourth-generation telecommunications worker, joined in informational picketing Thursday.

Before he had a full-time job, Davis was a union member. Members of his mom’s union made him an honorary CWA member when he walked the picketline with them back in 1983. On Thursday, Davis, with AT&T for 22 years, participated in informational picketing outside the company’s downtown Minneapolis office.

“My ancestors helped build this company,” he said. “But all (the company) seems to care about is more profit each year.”

AT&T posted profits of $12.9 billion for 2008 and is on track for solid growth this year, company executives said. Despite this success, AT&T is seeking to cut health care benefits by shifting even more costs to workers and to retirees on fixed incomes.

The union wants the company to participate in finding a national solution to the health care crisis – not continue to push more and more of the health care burden onto workers.

FULL story at link.