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. 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?

[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?

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..."