The Communications Workers of America have been engaged in
contract negotiations with AT&T, which this week
announced its "last, best and final offer" to the union.
The company noted that its offer would maintain "one of the most
robust health care plans in the nation" and increase wages "at a
time when many U.S. employers are seeking wage concessions or
freezing wages."
Not enough, says CWA:
"This contract offer by the Company does not even come up to the
status quo, and they are attempting to run rough-shod over your
elected Bargaining Committee and circumvent the bargaining
process. This contract offer is substandard for a company
that just made $12.9 billion in profits last year, and is already
on track this year to do just as well, despite a down
economy."
Ah. So the problem, according to the union officials, is that
AT&T made a profit! Even though the
price of AT&T stock has declined 37 percent (from
about 40 to about 25) in the past year, CWA insists that
stockholders are
reaping too much profit:
Thursday, union leaders delivered a petition with 3,500 names on
it declaring "corporate greed" and calling on the company to
settle on a fair labor agreement.
"It's all about jobs. It's all about keeping jobs in
Connecticut," said union president Bill Henderson. Over the last
four years, AT&T has shipped out 1,000 Connecticut union jobs
out of state, to places like Ohio and Michigan, he said.
"Corporate greed" = profit. Can't have that, can we? The job of
Democratic politicians is to reinforce this kind of atavistic
mentality, and Connecticut Attorney General is
mulling a Senate campaign against Joe Lieberman, so he's only
too happy to parrot the CWA line:
Blumenthal showed up to the rainy sidewalk, where a couple dozen
workers gathered, clad in red and holding umbrellas. He joined
their rallying cry.
"This issue is about service and jobs," said Blumenthal.
"You can't have good service if you don't have people providing
that service," said the attorney general . . .
CWA's political action committee collected $7.6 million in
the 2008 election cycle, and 98% of its contributions went to
Democrats. But only profitable corporations -- not unions or
Democrats -- are ever guilty of "greed."
