I have been a union man for many years. My last Union job was at one of the world's most globally recognized companies. I had a tenure of at least six years at AT&T. I was hired in to be an "all around cowboy". I was to learn every position possible. I did a pretty good job of it. I learned to be a technical guru for the company. I was an installation and repair guy for a couple of years. I did installs and repair of residential phone wire, jacks, DSL, drop lines from pole to home, and sales. I later went on to do heavy duty cable repair; finding faults in the outside plant. That gave me the opportunity to move on to AT&T construction department. I learned to build state of the art equipment. That equipment eventually lead to the AT&T U-verse that we all know and love. Suddenly, it all came to a halt.
I was told that I would be losing my position of top pay($33.00 per hour), and instantly going down to a u-verse technician position($15.00). I hung in there and worked for two years but I nearly lost my mind. I lost all of my savings. I went bankrupt. I lost my 2007 Chevy Tahoe. I lost everything but my family. I nearly lost it.
To make a long story short, i have to say what I really felt toward the end of my demise. I loved my union, but the same rules that would usually protect me, worked against me. I wanted to keep my position or work to get it back, but when I had to switch to a u-verse technician; it made me lower than anybody. I was a high ranking u-verse tech, but it meant nothing. I still had a terrible schedule. I worked long, and rediculous hours. My training had been different. I believed in top notch quality, and it was difficult to do as a u-verse tech. Speed was the name of the game. If I did not have to wait for my turn to come back around(as per union rules), I could have maneuvered and survived. If there were no union, I know plenty of people liked me and my qualities enough to move me to a place more suitable for my skill set and leadership. I would have survived. Due to union rules, I had to stay where I was, although I had more training and experience than many I and R technicians who had been hired after me. I was valuable, but was treated with no value at all. A smaller company with no union would have never thrown away over $100,000 worth of training, by allowing me to be exhausted and quit. I spent my last 90 days on stress leave. It was the worst job that I have ever had, and I have been in a war. I know that it was not just me complaining. Several other employees were on stress leave at the same time.
U-verse has a higher turn over rate than Taco Bell. That is hard to believe considering the good pay and benefits. In my case, I did not have to suffer a death blow in the funeral of a job called U-verse if Union rules did not stick me there. I could have been saved. This is just one man's story.
