Anti-strikers join the scene outside SBC offices

AP via The Dallas Morning News ^ | May 22, 2K4 | AP

[rdb3]

The major sticking points are SBC's demand that the CWA workers pay higher medical co-payments and the union's demand that its members get access to jobs in SBC's growth areas, among them Internet support and wireless data service.

That work is now handled by non-union contract workers, some of them overseas in low-wage India and the Philippines.

Hello! Will it ever sink in?

These folks are striking because they want the company to pay more for their health insurance and access to jobs in the new growth areas.

So you'll strike for a job that you don't have as opposed to continue working on your current gig and applying to move into those high-growth areas. Yeah, that makes sense. And they'll wonder why jobs go to "low-wage" areas overseas.

The "different" protest picket has it right. If you hate SBC, quit.

[martin_fierro]

NOT on strike.

[rdb3]

And that just proves my point for me.

[martin_fierro]

Well, yeah.

[KarlInOhio]

It's not like the Indian employees are all that good either.

I spent an hour on the phone with someone who sounded Indian from SBC trying to figure out why my home DSL wasn't working. My first question was whether they are having a local outage. She insisted they weren't and proceed to have me jump through lots of hoops trying to fix the problem. I finally gave up and went to work where the DSL wasn't working either. I called into the tech support line and there was a recorded message reporting a region wide outage. Idiots!

[rdb3]

It's not like the Indian employees are all that good either.

I'm not saying that they are good. The accent alone is enough to drive me crazy.

I think it is sheer lunacy to strike over getting the company to pay more for their health insurance while many other Americans qualified for this work would jump at the chance to do it.

Maybe these greedy folks think that their jobs are somehow safe.

[Agnes Heep]

What they're striking for is the right to assume possession of something that they didn't create; something that they didn't risk their money and future for, and something that doesn't belong to them in any regard. A venerable American tradition, to be sure.

[steplock]

Dumb! Strike more and watch more jobs leave!

They would rather shut a company down and destroy a city before they would ever compromise.

Buy union and pay double!

[Missouri]

I think it is sheer lunacy to strike over getting the company to pay more for their health insurance

IAM, Local 837, Boeing St. Louis is voting today on their new contract. Higher health insurance offset by a wage increase is on the table. It will probably pass.

There isn't much a company can do about the rising cost of health insurance so their just going to pass some of that cost along to their employees. The union members at SBC are need to re-think their position on this one.

[inflation]

Why is in wrong for the workers to be, what you call greedy but OK for the execs to be?

[rdb3]

Why is in wrong for the workers to be, what you call greedy but OK for the execs to be?

I don't accept your premise.

You think it's okay for the workers to have their more of their own health care costs picked up by the employer just because the union wants the company to do so?

[BlazingArizona]

A sister of mine is on the SBC picket line in Buena Park, CA. The big issues are outsourcing and medical insurance: the same problems small business has to face by itself without the intervention of any union.

[rdb3]

The big issues are outsourcing and medical insurance...

Outsourcing and medical insurance. Outsourcing and medical insurance. Outsourcing and medical insurance.

Sooner or later, the light is going to illuminate over some peoples' heads.

[Trust but Verify]

I'm in Wisconsin, and an SBC employee. I'm a rarity in that I'm non-management non-union (NMNU). I could join the union but have chosen not to. The majority of people I work with are union members and think the company's offer is fair. I have been urging them to make their position known to the union leadership, but they are afraid to.

[MMcC]

I spoke with several SBC techs (from around the country) last Thursday, and none of them were looking forward to the strike. I didn't come out and ask, but I could sense that they were afraid to disagree with the union leadership.

[rdb3]

I'm glad you're not a union member.

But why is it that the unions actually do things that hurt their members? Like that California grocery workers strike. In the end, the workers got precisely what the company was offering in the beginning, but the union members had to make do with strike pay for the whole ordeal. Who benefitted? The workers sure didn't because they lost money for striking.

[Trust but Verify]

If this goes beyond this weekend I hope they will speak out. My husband is a manager at SBC and has heard the union plans on calling a 4 day strike every weekend. If that happens, I hope Ed locks them out.

[Trust but Verify]

I'm glad you're not a union member.

So am I. CWA, in addition to trying to ruin this company and lose more of its members' jobs, is a major, major contributor to Demcrats. I'd have a hard time sleeping if my dues were going to defeat politicians I support.

Ed Whitacre said that as of 11:59PM Monday, the current offer will be withdrawn. And if they pull this 4 day strike crap again next week, look for a lockout.

[MMcC]

I wouldn't be surprised to see a lockout on Tuesday. If SBC felt that this was only going to last for 4 days, they wouldn't have shipped managers all over the country with instuctions to prepare for a longer than 4 day stay.

[Trust but Verify]

You may be right, I know they told the managers to prepare for a stay of up to 30 days, and to buy one-way airline tickets. I think what the union is trying to do is get the managers to have to deploy time and time again. If that's their goal, they are dumber than doorknobs. There will be a lock-out. Ed Whitacre is a plain-spoken, straight-shooting Texan and he isn't going to stand for it.