Kiss your lovely phone/internet/cell phone service goodbye...

[Tonya]

We just had our union meeting tonight...If you are in any of SBC's 13 states, we are going on strike. We're also known as Bell South, PacBell, Bell this and Bell that, Ameritech, Verizon, Cingular, etc...

So....kiss your lovely phone service goodbye for a month or so. :D We think it'll be May.

[guster girl]

Uh oh. I use Cingular!

[shais_mom]

I have a Verizon cell phone.. so does almost my whole family... funny my Brother in Law works for Verizon and I never heard anything..... You act like its a good thing.. will this solve the problem?
:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

[lynnestankard]

Glad I'm in England!!

Lynne

[Cincy'sMom]

Lovely. I use Verizon cell phone and SBC for telephone and internet. I guess don't plan on seeing me here in May!

[Rio and Me]

Me too Lynnestankard!!
What will this achive Tonya?
Ky and Rio

[catnapper]

ut-oh, I think our home phone is Verizon.... no internet?????

Must....

find.....

something....

else!

Seriously, are the contract talks that far out of whack? People will be furious to have their phone service discontinued for five mintues, let alone a month --- so if you do strike, wouldn't they meet your demands fairly quickly? I mean, if the strike goes on for any length of time, their customers will go flocking to other providers.

[dukedogsmom]

No worries for me! I love my Sprint phone. Feel sorry for all you others

[Karen]

I doubt Tonya's region reaches as far as Ohio ... and if they're not going to strike until May, there's time to work something out. No panic needed yet, folks ...

[Tonya]

Originally posted by shais_mom
I have a Verizon cell phone.. so does almost my whole family... funny my Brother in Law works for Verizon and I never heard anything..... You act like its a good thing.. will this solve the problem?
:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

I *think* Verizon cellular has a separate contract. SBC has so many subsidiaries, it's hard to remember who's contract is what. I do know that 13 states will be striking though. It's going to be primarily everyone's landline phones, but cellular will be affected too.

Bush is quite concerned because of national security, so he's given the Union and Company a place to stay in DC and offered us a free mediator. How sweet. Couldn't be cause it's election year, could it?

[Tonya]

Our contract expires April 1st, the only reason we'll strike in May is because we agreed to give them 30 days notice before we strike in lieu of them carrying our health benefits through the strike.

They've been bargaining since Feb. the company isn't budging. The biggest thing is health benefits, they're wanting to take them away from employees and retirees. There's several other small things, but that's the biggest issue.

Here are the companies affected, so if any of these are yours....

Contracts covering nearly 102,000 SBC workers in four districts expire in early April. Bargaining is expected to get underway in mid-February. The units are SBC Midwest (formerly Ameritech), District 4; SBC Southwest (formerly Southwestern Bell), District 6; SBC West (formerly Pacific Bell), District 9; and SBC East (formerly Southern New England Telephone), District 1.


Employment security means access to the jobs of the future, and SBC has bundled local service with long distance, Cingular wireless and DSL. In the near future, it will add satellite television from its partner, Echostar. SBC locals pledged to fight for access to all of this work in this round of negotiations.

[Tonya]

BTW, just so you don't totally panic, they do have managers that have never done our jobs and contractors maintaining the lines. So you'll probably have service, just cruddy service. And if you have problems with your lines, odds are that you'll wait a while before someone comes out to fix it. And God fobid if you have to call in with a billing question or order!

[Tonya]

Oh! I forgot a big one. Right now, 44% of our calls are going to India and Pakistan. If you call with a billing question, order, etc... you get someone in India. They're now moving alot of the computer support jobs to India too. That's a huge one we're fighting.

Anyhoo...gotta go to work. Just thought I let ya all know. Have a good day!

[ramanth]

I have Verizon and Andy has Cingular... guess we'll see....

I hope you get your benefits Tonya. Both my mom (public school system) and dad (GM) belong to Unions.

[Tonya]

Originally posted by catnapper
Seriously, are the contract talks that far out of whack? People will be furious to have their phone service discontinued for five mintues, let alone a month --- so if you do strike, wouldn't they meet your demands fairly quickly? I mean, if the strike goes on for any length of time, their customers will go flocking to other providers.

That's impossible because we own all the cables and lines. Whenever you purchase phone service through another company...let's say AT&T...they call us and place the order. SBC (myself) is actually the one who installs and maintains the line. We just sell the name to AT&T at a wholesale price. Customers get confused all the time when they need their phone repaired and SBC shows up. I always here "But I have AT&T..."

[G.P.girl]

does..that...mean...no internet?? what will i do??? oh wiat...nevermind..i htink we have comcast and Tmobile. but i wouldn't mind losing itfor awhile anyway if tonya got her benifets;)

[moosmom]

My phone doesn't ring much anyway. But no INTERNET??? :confused: That's enough to make someone go into withdrawal!!

[catnapper]

A see....

Wow. What a mess. I don't blame you for fighting. They tried to take my husband's benefit away during their contract talks this year. They did to some extent and made us pay more out of pcoket. His whopping $500 raise went right back out the door to pay for medical.:rolleyes: He wanted to strike and the young teachers were too afraid to do that (his school is made up of predominately young teachers) so they basically got nothing in their contract because the school broad knew they wouldn't strike.

I also don't blame you for fighting the India thing. Keep it local. Pay the people here who contribute to our economy. I hate to hear things like that are happening.:(

Please keep us updated. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

[aly]

Originally posted by Tonya
And God fobid if you have to call in with a billing question or order!

Yeah, that is bad enough without a strike.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Originally posted by catnapper
People will be furious to have their phone service discontinued for five mintues, let alone a month --- so if you do strike, wouldn't they meet your demands fairly quickly?

Just so everyone understands, they're not going to cut your service off, they just won't be as quick to respond if you have a problem. Like Tonya says, there are managers and others that will be doing the jobs of the strikers, but obviously there aren't as many, so repair service will be delayed.

So calm down, no one is going to cut off all our internet services. Phones? Bah-who cares about those. All we need is the internet....which I'm sure is part of the problem here. ;)

I've got SBC Yahoo DSL at work, and all our local and long distance here at work is through SBC (previously Ameritech) so I'm sure I will be affected. Of course I don't know all the issues, or even know the minor issues in depth, but I've got a major problem with big corporations taking their jobs overseas, and these call centers in India really irk me. I've talked to a few of them and I don't want to sound prejudiced or anything, but they can barely speak english. How am I supposed to get my needs across to someone who doesn't even speak my language - and the little that they do has such an accent added to it that I can't understand what they're trying to say either - it's SO frustrating.

I believe with the ongoing changes in communications, Ameritech and the other big telecom companies need to make some changes, but taking away health benefits and sending jobs overseas is not the way to do it - in my opinion.

However, on the other side of the coin, I also believe that people who work for big corporations that have been around forever need to join the real world of employment. I have a friend who was laid off from AT&T and he has health benefits for the rest of his life!!! If I get laid off I get health benefits until the minute I walk out the door! I believe the big corporations need to make some cut backs, but they have to do it in a sane way - and like I said, sending the jobs overseas is not the way to do it.

Anyway, enough of my rant. I'm just really fed up with all these corporations crying about how bad they've got it. I never was a corporate person and the way they're going, I never will be. :mad:

[Tonya]

Originally posted by Tubby & Peanut's Mom
Just so everyone understands, they're not going to cut your service off, they just won't be as quick to respond if you have a problem. Like Tonya says, there are managers and others that will be doing the jobs of the strikers, but obviously there aren't as many, so repair service will be delayed.

So calm down, no one is going to cut off all our internet services. Phones? Bah-who cares about those. All we need is the internet....which I'm sure is part of the problem here. ;)

I've got SBC Yahoo DSL at work, and all our local and long distance here at work is through SBC (previously Ameritech) so I'm sure I will be affected. Of course I don't know all the issues, or even know the minor issues in depth, but I've got a major problem with big corporations taking their jobs overseas, and these call centers in India really irk me. I've talked to a few of them and I don't want to sound prejudiced or anything, but they can barely speak english. How am I supposed to get my needs across to someone who doesn't even speak my language - and the little that they do has such an accent added to it that I can't understand what they're trying to say either - it's SO frustrating.

I believe with the ongoing changes in communications, Ameritech and the other big telecom companies need to make some changes, but taking away health benefits and sending jobs overseas is not the way to do it - in my opinion.

However, on the other side of the coin, I also believe that people who work for big corporations that have been around forever need to join the real world of employment. I have a friend who was laid off from AT&T and he has health benefits for the rest of his life!!! If I get laid off I get health benefits until the minute I walk out the door! I believe the big corporations need to make some cut backs, but they have to do it in a sane way - and like I said, sending the jobs overseas is not the way to do it.

Anyway, enough of my rant. I'm just really fed up with all these corporations crying about how bad they've got it. I never was a corporate person and the way they're going, I never will be. :mad:

YEAH! WHAT TUBBY SAID! SHE MAKES BETTER SENSE THEN ME. LOL.

[shais_mom]

Yup I asked my sister about it and she said it probably won't effect us her on the East side, just the west side.