27 replies to this topic

[ExPrem Tech thanks GOD]

I have worked for SBC which then became AT&T for almost seven years. I started out as a Temporary Service Technician and then left the company for six months and came back as a Premise Technician. I have been a member of CWA, or Communications Workers of America, as long as I have been with SBC/AT&T.

The area I worked was in District 6 which is Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. When I came back as a Premise Technician I was asked to be the Chief Steward for my garages Premise Technicians. I served in that capacity for about a year.

The first thing that you need to ask yourself is are you capable of doing this work? In District 6 you will find the summer months, lets say Mid May to late August to be extremely difficult simply because of the heat. And as a Premise Technician you need to be prepared to go into an attic for at least every other job you go out on. So not only will it be 100+ degrees outside you will be in an attic for at least 30 minutes that will easily be 140 - 150 degrees Fahrenheit. The safety standards for Premise Technicians is not the same for the rest of the AT&T field workers, and it actually in my opinion is dangerous in its current state. You will can call your manager for help but he/she will most likely tell you they can not send anyone because they are overloaded and no one is free to come help...not even themselves because they have a conference call they have to be on soon. So your on your own. Winter these attics are no problem the heat is much more manageable. I harp on this because this is a HUGE part of your job. There are no specific O.S.H.A. guidelines, at least that I know of, for working in an enclosed attic in summer months. There is an O.S.H.A. standard for unventilated steel or iron hulls but not attic spaces in summer. And the companies policy is to get down and hydrate every fifteen minutes when its hot...like I said it is a dangerous policy that will not change until they pull a dead Prem Tech out of someones attic. And Like I said, I harp on this because you will be spending ALOT of time in the attic. I know some of you old salt CATV installers maybe laughing up your sleeve but to me the attic work is the most dangerous part of the job.

Another thing that you need to consider is that you will most likely not have the option of moving out of a Premise Technician position for 18 months or more. And in reality you will be lucky to ever get to move into another position. Truth be told in the last year most Premise Tech positions have been filled by surplus Maintenance, Installation and Repair and Construction workers. And those jobs are the jobs that most likely you would want to move into, so if those jobs are being cut and people being fired or taking Prem Tech jobs, whats the likelihood of you being able to move up in 18 months?

You will be working for a company that has a unionized workforce. You have the option of joining the Union, I would seriously check into this. Ask those Union Stewards when and if you see them, questions about the contract that governs your position. What is the contract? Why are Premise Technicians under an amendment of the core contract and not under the core contract? What is the difference between how you are treated and what rights you have, contractually as compared to lets say an Installation and Repair Technician. The answer to that question comes with a song and dance, just so you know. Also ask that Steward if your job is protected from other employees from within the company from dropping in and taking your job from you. If they say yes then believe me, they are lying to you. As a matter of fact any I&R, Construction or Maintenance Technician that has been surplussed in District 6 to a Premise Tech position is actually getting to keep their pay for the duration of the contract. So not only can they come in and take your job, they get to go straight to the top of the seniority ladder for days of and vacation picks, which is a mute point anyway. But they also will be making 10 dollars more than you, assuming you are at top pay. The CWA simply wants your union dues and has no intention of getting you, a premise technician, equal rights guaranteed by the contract, like so many of those other outside technicians get to enjoy, for the moment. Mostly you will be told how lucky you are to have a job by both the union and the company. I wonder how many slave owners told their slaves how lucky those slaves were to have them as a slave owner? My point is do not expect things to get better for Premise Technicians in the next contract negotiations.

Your shirts will be provided for you, at least in District 6. And as a matter of fact you will be forced to wear those shirts every time you come to work. Which to a person off of the street may not be a big deal but no one else in the company is FORCED to wear company branded material. Not even your counterparts on the POTS side of AT&T that has contact with customers, much the same way you do. You will need good foot wear with ankle support for gaffing poles and using ladders. You will need to have a 90 degree heal on that boot as well. You will need to provide work pants as well. There is the possibility that you will have to climb either a pole or a ladder at the terminal in the easement/alley to heights anywhere from 20 to 30 feet, on any job you roll up on. Any higher would be unsafe even on a 26 foot extendable.

I, and every other Premise Technician in my barn was hired on as a full time permanent employee. However, that is not the case all over the U.S. from what I understand. There are U-Verse contractors and temporary premise technicians out there as well. If you are a temporary employee you can be job completed at anytime, and the Union can do nothing to help you. I have seen our Union jump in and help people whom were permanent employees, Prem Techs as well, keep their jobs when their managers get a little over zealous.

As far as OT and such, well it really depends on what area you are in. In Dallas they work technicians so hard that some put in as much as 70 or even 80 hours a WEEK. As a Premise Technician you are normally forced to work 60 hours a week. Then again for most months out of the year El Paso Premise Technicians are lucky to get 32 hours a week. Which is guaranteed by the contract. the company has to pay you for at least 32 hours a week and can not force you to work more than 60 hours a week, per the contract. But most of the managers get mad at you if you choose to follow that part of the contract. They even get childish about it and I have seen them try and sometimes succeed in putting people on suspension for simply following the contract. You generally are forced to work at least one S/N day, or day off, so you are working 6 days a week. When things are nasty you had better count on 7 days a week. AT&T seems incapable of being able to put together a even nice work schedule that has you working 40 to 50 hours a week. The Union and AT&T will always tout what a great working relationship they have with each other, but it seems to me that its almost too good a working relationship. The Union does not stand up to the company enough in regards to new job titles or new hire employees. But that is biting the Union in the rear these days with so many core jobs being surplussed and the only positions to move into are these Premise Technician jobs or leveraged title positions in the business office.

A Premise Technician fresh off the street should expect starting pay around 10-12 dollars an hour. If you have say four years experience in CATV your probably looking at 14-16 dollars an hour. And if you have both CATV and Phone experience then you might get lucky and start at top pay for 20 an hour.

Are there alot of jobs that allow you the opportunity to make 20 bucks an hour with only a high school education? Nope there sure isn't. Would I recommend this job for everyone? Absolutely not. If you absolutely need a job to care for your family then this can be a good job for you. Just go in knowing that the Union only wants your dues...not your opinion of if your being treated fairly. And that AT&T is gonna work you to the point of exhaustion. You are going to earn every single penny of that twenty dollars.

AT&T benefits are fairly good, but they are getting worse and worse with each contract negotiation. I once told my Local President of the Union chapter that 'AT&T used to be that job you waited two, three years in line to get. But with the changes in employee policies and contract changes that is not going to be the case anymore.' He laughed at me and looked at me like I was nuts.

I know that this sounds like I am disgruntled, and to an extent I am. However, ask any prem tech out there if I have exaggerated the truth in anything I have said and I doubt many would agree to that fact.

[wood stabber]

Power lineman,,,,,,,,,,$ 50 an hour, JUST a high school diploma!

[ExPrem Tech thanks GOD]

Power lineman,,,,,,,,,,$ 50 an hour, JUST a high school diploma!

Just tell me where to sign up bud!

[gman2277]

Man it sounds like at&t is ***** to work for and your distric is horrible as well.I am in district 4 although i dont work for at&t and i make double the pay that you guys make.Is that pay only for the u-verse guys or for copper guys as well.I am a outside plant maintenance tech for a bell company and a union steward.I can honestly say i have had issues with the company but i normally grieve the issue and it goes away lol.The company did offer a buy out last yr to some of the old guys with 20+yrs in and most of them took it.I have heard other at&t prem techs saying they get treated like ***** as well.I feel for you man but atleast you aren't working at mcdonalds or something.

[ExPrem Tech thanks GOD]

Man it sounds like at&t is ***** to work for and your distric is horrible as well.I am in district 4 although i dont work for at&t and i make double the pay that you guys make.Is that pay only for the u-verse guys or for copper guys as well.I am a outside plant maintenance tech for a bell company and a union steward.I can honestly say i have had issues with the company but i normally grieve the issue and it goes away lol.The company did offer a buy out last yr to some of the old guys with 20+yrs in and most of them took it.I have heard other at&t prem techs saying they get treated like ***** as well.I feel for you man but atleast you aren't working at mcdonalds or something.

For the duration of this contract, the next year and a half roughly, any 'Copper' workers that are forced into a Premise Technician get to keep the core contract rights and wages. Our I&R, Maintenance and Construction techs (that work with copper and fiber) are topping out at 31 an hour. They also have access to 9/12 overtime rule. Which if you do not know what that is then I'll explain. Under the 9/12 overtime rule depending on which month you are in once you work 9 or 12 hours of overtime then any additional overtime is voluntary and you get paid double time. So the straw that broke my back was me training a guy, that was lazy as as can be and sat in my truck, that had been forced over from Construction was making 31 an hour and at the end of the day while I was still working on a job I had to pull off of it to take that guy in so he didn't get passed his overtime. All this while I am making 20 an hour and even once this guy gets trained I'll be able to out work him any day of the week.

The local members and local leadership of our Union are the only people that we can count on. Where everything starts getting gray is the leadership at the district level. But, since the National and District are the folks that get the job done or fail completely in regards to contract negotiations there is nothing the local can do. So yeah our Union is horrible, they are in that mode of just hanging on and trying to keep what they have had and any new comers...too bad for you. Shoot, we can't even get our own Districts to stand together. This past contract negotiations we had districts settling on contracts and entering tentative agreements before allowing other districts to negotiate their contracts. So what can you do as a single District? Not a thing at all. Like I said earlier, the Union is paying for that now though because they are loosing the I&R, Maintenance and Construction jobs and paying for allowing the amended portion of the contract that governs Premise Technicians to even come into existence. I mention that because the company is using that amended contract to justify their actions in cutting jobs.

The only thing I can think of is be wary, when AT&T is done with the CWA then your company will probably try to do the same thing to you.

[gman2277]

yea i agree it seems like the distric leaders are in the companies pocket.As far as ot goes we get double time after 9 hrs of ot so if we work 52 hrs in a week 3 hrs of that is dbl time the other 9 is time and a half..Not a bad deal.they also cannot force us to work more then 8 hrs a day.I hope my company doesnt try to pull the stuff at&t did we actually have a contract that expires in may of 2011.I can only hope we get a fair shake in the next one.

[deighbo]

Hear in District 3, PT's are not represented, so they treated even more like crap!

[farmerjim]

Hear in District 3, PT's are not represented, so they treated even more like crap!

alot of exprem comments are true. i was an installation/repair tech in d1 for 12yrs up until this mar. when we had a surplus and i was offered severence, prem tech, or a position in the business office. i ended up taking the severence and leaving, as i had already been force loaned to prem tech for 1 yr prior and it was h$ll, i never had an issue w/ mgmnt or work rules until i got sent to prem tech. it was like all of a sudden no matter what i did wasn't good enough. i know i could never work in the cubicle world of the business office and leaving the pay and benes was a hard decision but in the long run i think i'm better off. i had been hoping to transfer to a construction or engineering position after putting my time in but moving anywhere in att land these days is a no go. i have a degree i can fall back on and am trying to get in where i can use it, but for the time being i'm working hard and doing something i've done since growing up.

[ExPrem Tech thanks GOD]

yea i agree it seems like the distric leaders are in the companies pocket.As far as ot goes we get double time after 9 hrs of ot so if we work 52 hrs in a week 3 hrs of that is dbl time the other 9 is time and a half..Not a bad deal.they also cannot force us to work more then 8 hrs a day.I hope my company doesnt try to pull the stuff at&t did we actually have a contract that expires in may of 2011.I can only hope we get a fair shake in the next one.

Well I hope that as well. Any company that treats its employees like AT&T treats its Premise Technicians and leveraged title positions does not deserve to be successful. So if companies, like yours with any luck, keeps it in mind that the revenue that is generated for their coffers is CREATED by the skill sets and job performance of those hourly employees that work outside and in business offices then I think they will always have the opportunity to be successful.

[ExPrem Tech thanks GOD]

Hear in District 3, PT's are not represented, so they treated even more like crap!

alot of exprem comments are true. i was an installation/repair tech in d1 for 12yrs up until this mar. when we had a surplus and i was offered severence, prem tech, or a position in the business office. i ended up taking the severence and leaving, as i had already been force loaned to prem tech for 1 yr prior and it was h$ll, i never had an issue w/ mgmnt or work rules until i got sent to prem tech. it was like all of a sudden no matter what i did wasn't good enough. i know i could never work in the cubicle world of the business office and leaving the pay and benes was a hard decision but in the long run i think i'm better off. i had been hoping to transfer to a construction or engineering position after putting my time in but moving anywhere in att land these days is a no go. i have a degree i can fall back on and am trying to get in where i can use it, but for the time being i'm working hard and doing something i've done since growing up.

By far working in a Premise Technician department has been the most negative experience of my working life. Everyday you are told how you didn't do this or didn't do that. I had a job that was a new home that had a very complicated smart home set up. I called my manager and he came out and he couldn't even figure it out. I did eventually but low and behold the next day he is on my butt about how long it took me to do that job. Nothing is ever good enough, you are always being threatened by steps of discipline and even as hostile as the working conditions are they add to that by telling you flat out that if you don't like it then quit. Well I finally took them up on that last part.

Nothing is ever good enough and they always want more. Now I know you get that from any place you work...to an extent. But until you experience it as a Premise Technician then you really have no clue. When I was the Chief Steward of my Prem Techs I would always explain the working conditions at Union meetings. People would tell me its no worse than what they have to put up with. And yet a few months into one of those Suprplus victims that elected to take a Prem Tech position would always come to me and say, God I had no idea how bad it is here. Well I think most outside employees will have that opportunity in the next few years, and they'll have no one to blame but the Union. And I say that because the Union knows they should have stood up to the company about the Appendix J and whatever appendix to the core contract that created the leveraged title position. Yet, they didn't...they wanted that head count and the dues that came with the new head count.

[lugnut77]

Thank you for your opinions and for relating your personal experience as a prem tech. Those of us OSP techs that work in the rural, and don't have ready access to Prem Techs, probably don't know how bad the situation is. Thanks again, you have really enlightened me.

Lug

[sanman]

Hello All,

Well let me start out by saying that the above info has been insightful. I have looked for PT info for months now! And not until now after I have accepted the job found some of the dirt that I was looking for.

Well, my hopes are only that it is better than my previous employer of a Sat Tv Company "DN". I believe that the enviorment there was (IMO) terrible, crazy, unfair, and impossible. Nothing (IMO) could ever be as bad as that work place.

Regardless, I am excited to work for ATT as a PT. The start pay for me at ATT was alot more than what my previous would have ever paid out starting out. As a matter of fact, after 3 years of service at DN, my start pay at ATT beats it by almost 3 dollars. Sad But Very True. So I am hoping that this job will be a positive for me. As I know that, not "Everyone" at any workplace will ever be happy.

To anyone that would like to give me more insight and make it not so public, could you please email me.

I do have a family and would like to know exactly what I'm getting myself into here.

[kblgy]

I have worked for SBC which then became AT&T for almost seven years. I started out as a Temporary Service Technician and then left the company for six months and came back as a Premise Technician. I have been a member of CWA, or Communications Workers of America, as long as I have been with SBC/AT&T.

The area I worked was in District 6 which is Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. When I came back as a Premise Technician I was asked to be the Chief Steward for my garages Premise Technicians. I served in that capacity for about a year.

The first thing that you need to ask yourself is are you capable of doing this work? In District 6 you will find the summer months, lets say Mid May to late August to be extremely difficult simply because of the heat. And as a Premise Technician you need to be prepared to go into an attic for at least every other job you go out on. So not only will it be 100+ degrees outside you will be in an attic for at least 30 minutes that will easily be 140 - 150 degrees Fahrenheit. The safety standards for Premise Technicians is not the same for the rest of the AT&T field workers, and it actually in my opinion is dangerous in its current state. You will can call your manager for help but he/she will most likely tell you they can not send anyone because they are overloaded and no one is free to come help...not even themselves because they have a conference call they have to be on soon. So your on your own. Winter these attics are no problem the heat is much more manageable. I harp on this because this is a HUGE part of your job. There are no specific O.S.H.A. guidelines, at least that I know of, for working in an enclosed attic in summer months. There is an O.S.H.A. standard for unventilated steel or iron hulls but not attic spaces in summer. And the companies policy is to get down and hydrate every fifteen minutes when its hot...like I said it is a dangerous policy that will not change until they pull a dead Prem Tech out of someones attic. And Like I said, I harp on this because you will be spending ALOT of time in the attic. I know some of you old salt CATV installers maybe laughing up your sleeve but to me the attic work is the most dangerous part of the job.

Another thing that you need to consider is that you will most likely not have the option of moving out of a Premise Technician position for 18 months or more. And in reality you will be lucky to ever get to move into another position. Truth be told in the last year most Premise Tech positions have been filled by surplus Maintenance, Installation and Repair and Construction workers. And those jobs are the jobs that most likely you would want to move into, so if those jobs are being cut and people being fired or taking Prem Tech jobs, whats the likelihood of you being able to move up in 18 months?

You will be working for a company that has a unionized workforce. You have the option of joining the Union, I would seriously check into this. Ask those Union Stewards when and if you see them, questions about the contract that governs your position. What is the contract? Why are Premise Technicians under an amendment of the core contract and not under the core contract? What is the difference between how you are treated and what rights you have, contractually as compared to lets say an Installation and Repair Technician. The answer to that question comes with a song and dance, just so you know. Also ask that Steward if your job is protected from other employees from within the company from dropping in and taking your job from you. If they say yes then believe me, they are lying to you. As a matter of fact any I&R, Construction or Maintenance Technician that has been surplussed in District 6 to a Premise Tech position is actually getting to keep their pay for the duration of the contract. So not only can they come in and take your job, they get to go straight to the top of the seniority ladder for days of and vacation picks, which is a mute point anyway. But they also will be making 10 dollars more than you, assuming you are at top pay. The CWA simply wants your union dues and has no intention of getting you, a premise technician, equal rights guaranteed by the contract, like so many of those other outside technicians get to enjoy, for the moment. Mostly you will be told how lucky you are to have a job by both the union and the company. I wonder how many slave owners told their slaves how lucky those slaves were to have them as a slave owner? My point is do not expect things to get better for Premise Technicians in the next contract negotiations.

Your shirts will be provided for you, at least in District 6. And as a matter of fact you will be forced to wear those shirts every time you come to work. Which to a person off of the street may not be a big deal but no one else in the company is FORCED to wear company branded material. Not even your counterparts on the POTS side of AT&T that has contact with customers, much the same way you do. You will need good foot wear with ankle support for gaffing poles and using ladders. You will need to have a 90 degree heal on that boot as well. You will need to provide work pants as well. There is the possibility that you will have to climb either a pole or a ladder at the terminal in the easement/alley to heights anywhere from 20 to 30 feet, on any job you roll up on. Any higher would be unsafe even on a 26 foot extendable.

I, and every other Premise Technician in my barn was hired on as a full time permanent employee. However, that is not the case all over the U.S. from what I understand. There are U-Verse contractors and temporary premise technicians out there as well. If you are a temporary employee you can be job completed at anytime, and the Union can do nothing to help you. I have seen our Union jump in and help people whom were permanent employees, Prem Techs as well, keep their jobs when their managers get a little over zealous.

As far as OT and such, well it really depends on what area you are in. In Dallas they work technicians so hard that some put in as much as 70 or even 80 hours a WEEK. As a Premise Technician you are normally forced to work 60 hours a week. Then again for most months out of the year El Paso Premise Technicians are lucky to get 32 hours a week. Which is guaranteed by the contract. the company has to pay you for at least 32 hours a week and can not force you to work more than 60 hours a week, per the contract. But most of the managers get mad at you if you choose to follow that part of the contract. They even get childish about it and I have seen them try and sometimes succeed in putting people on suspension for simply following the contract. You generally are forced to work at least one S/N day, or day off, so you are working 6 days a week. When things are nasty you had better count on 7 days a week. AT&T seems incapable of being able to put together a even nice work schedule that has you working 40 to 50 hours a week. The Union and AT&T will always tout what a great working relationship they have with each other, but it seems to me that its almost too good a working relationship. The Union does not stand up to the company enough in regards to new job titles or new hire employees. But that is biting the Union in the rear these days with so many core jobs being surplussed and the only positions to move into are these Premise Technician jobs or leveraged title positions in the business office.

A Premise Technician fresh off the street should expect starting pay around 10-12 dollars an hour. If you have say four years experience in CATV your probably looking at 14-16 dollars an hour. And if you have both CATV and Phone experience then you might get lucky and start at top pay for 20 an hour.

Are there alot of jobs that allow you the opportunity to make 20 bucks an hour with only a high school education? Nope there sure isn't. Would I recommend this job for everyone? Absolutely not. If you absolutely need a job to care for your family then this can be a good job for you. Just go in knowing that the Union only wants your dues...not your opinion of if your being treated fairly. And that AT&T is gonna work you to the point of exhaustion. You are going to earn every single penny of that twenty dollars.

AT&T benefits are fairly good, but they are getting worse and worse with each contract negotiation. I once told my Local President of the Union chapter that 'AT&T used to be that job you waited two, three years in line to get. But with the changes in employee policies and contract changes that is not going to be the case anymore.' He laughed at me and looked at me like I was nuts.

I know that this sounds like I am disgruntled, and to an extent I am. However, ask any prem tech out there if I have exaggerated the truth in anything I have said and I doubt many would agree to that fact.

Sounds to me like you lads have to stand up for your rights, im in Canada not the US but there are labor laws that all companies have to follow. And i would suggest you try and get better union representation as it appears you dont have much.

[ExPrem Tech thanks GOD]

I have worked for SBC which then became AT&T for almost seven years. I started out as a Temporary Service Technician and then left the company for six months and came back as a Premise Technician. I have been a member of CWA, or Communications Workers of America, as long as I have been with SBC/AT&T.

The area I worked was in District 6 which is Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. When I came back as a Premise Technician I was asked to be the Chief Steward for my garages Premise Technicians. I served in that capacity for about a year.

The first thing that you need to ask yourself is are you capable of doing this work? In District 6 you will find the summer months, lets say Mid May to late August to be extremely difficult simply because of the heat. And as a Premise Technician you need to be prepared to go into an attic for at least every other job you go out on. So not only will it be 100+ degrees outside you will be in an attic for at least 30 minutes that will easily be 140 - 150 degrees Fahrenheit. The safety standards for Premise Technicians is not the same for the rest of the AT&T field workers, and it actually in my opinion is dangerous in its current state. You will can call your manager for help but he/she will most likely tell you they can not send anyone because they are overloaded and no one is free to come help...not even themselves because they have a conference call they have to be on soon. So your on your own. Winter these attics are no problem the heat is much more manageable. I harp on this because this is a HUGE part of your job. There are no specific O.S.H.A. guidelines, at least that I know of, for working in an enclosed attic in summer months. There is an O.S.H.A. standard for unventilated steel or iron hulls but not attic spaces in summer. And the companies policy is to get down and hydrate every fifteen minutes when its hot...like I said it is a dangerous policy that will not change until they pull a dead Prem Tech out of someones attic. And Like I said, I harp on this because you will be spending ALOT of time in the attic. I know some of you old salt CATV installers maybe laughing up your sleeve but to me the attic work is the most dangerous part of the job.

Another thing that you need to consider is that you will most likely not have the option of moving out of a Premise Technician position for 18 months or more. And in reality you will be lucky to ever get to move into another position. Truth be told in the last year most Premise Tech positions have been filled by surplus Maintenance, Installation and Repair and Construction workers. And those jobs are the jobs that most likely you would want to move into, so if those jobs are being cut and people being fired or taking Prem Tech jobs, whats the likelihood of you being able to move up in 18 months?

You will be working for a company that has a unionized workforce. You have the option of joining the Union, I would seriously check into this. Ask those Union Stewards when and if you see them, questions about the contract that governs your position. What is the contract? Why are Premise Technicians under an amendment of the core contract and not under the core contract? What is the difference between how you are treated and what rights you have, contractually as compared to lets say an Installation and Repair Technician. The answer to that question comes with a song and dance, just so you know. Also ask that Steward if your job is protected from other employees from within the company from dropping in and taking your job from you. If they say yes then believe me, they are lying to you. As a matter of fact any I&R, Construction or Maintenance Technician that has been surplussed in District 6 to a Premise Tech position is actually getting to keep their pay for the duration of the contract. So not only can they come in and take your job, they get to go straight to the top of the seniority ladder for days of and vacation picks, which is a mute point anyway. But they also will be making 10 dollars more than you, assuming you are at top pay. The CWA simply wants your union dues and has no intention of getting you, a premise technician, equal rights guaranteed by the contract, like so many of those other outside technicians get to enjoy, for the moment. Mostly you will be told how lucky you are to have a job by both the union and the company. I wonder how many slave owners told their slaves how lucky those slaves were to have them as a slave owner? My point is do not expect things to get better for Premise Technicians in the next contract negotiations.

Your shirts will be provided for you, at least in District 6. And as a matter of fact you will be forced to wear those shirts every time you come to work. Which to a person off of the street may not be a big deal but no one else in the company is FORCED to wear company branded material. Not even your counterparts on the POTS side of AT&T that has contact with customers, much the same way you do. You will need good foot wear with ankle support for gaffing poles and using ladders. You will need to have a 90 degree heal on that boot as well. You will need to provide work pants as well. There is the possibility that you will have to climb either a pole or a ladder at the terminal in the easement/alley to heights anywhere from 20 to 30 feet, on any job you roll up on. Any higher would be unsafe even on a 26 foot extendable.

I, and every other Premise Technician in my barn was hired on as a full time permanent employee. However, that is not the case all over the U.S. from what I understand. There are U-Verse contractors and temporary premise technicians out there as well. If you are a temporary employee you can be job completed at anytime, and the Union can do nothing to help you. I have seen our Union jump in and help people whom were permanent employees, Prem Techs as well, keep their jobs when their managers get a little over zealous.

As far as OT and such, well it really depends on what area you are in. In Dallas they work technicians so hard that some put in as much as 70 or even 80 hours a WEEK. As a Premise Technician you are normally forced to work 60 hours a week. Then again for most months out of the year El Paso Premise Technicians are lucky to get 32 hours a week. Which is guaranteed by the contract. the company has to pay you for at least 32 hours a week and can not force you to work more than 60 hours a week, per the contract. But most of the managers get mad at you if you choose to follow that part of the contract. They even get childish about it and I have seen them try and sometimes succeed in putting people on suspension for simply following the contract. You generally are forced to work at least one S/N day, or day off, so you are working 6 days a week. When things are nasty you had better count on 7 days a week. AT&T seems incapable of being able to put together a even nice work schedule that has you working 40 to 50 hours a week. The Union and AT&T will always tout what a great working relationship they have with each other, but it seems to me that its almost too good a working relationship. The Union does not stand up to the company enough in regards to new job titles or new hire employees. But that is biting the Union in the rear these days with so many core jobs being surplussed and the only positions to move into are these Premise Technician jobs or leveraged title positions in the business office.

A Premise Technician fresh off the street should expect starting pay around 10-12 dollars an hour. If you have say four years experience in CATV your probably looking at 14-16 dollars an hour. And if you have both CATV and Phone experience then you might get lucky and start at top pay for 20 an hour.

Are there alot of jobs that allow you the opportunity to make 20 bucks an hour with only a high school education? Nope there sure isn't. Would I recommend this job for everyone? Absolutely not. If you absolutely need a job to care for your family then this can be a good job for you. Just go in knowing that the Union only wants your dues...not your opinion of if your being treated fairly. And that AT&T is gonna work you to the point of exhaustion. You are going to earn every single penny of that twenty dollars.

AT&T benefits are fairly good, but they are getting worse and worse with each contract negotiation. I once told my Local President of the Union chapter that 'AT&T used to be that job you waited two, three years in line to get. But with the changes in employee policies and contract changes that is not going to be the case anymore.' He laughed at me and looked at me like I was nuts.

I know that this sounds like I am disgruntled, and to an extent I am. However, ask any prem tech out there if I have exaggerated the truth in anything I have said and I doubt many would agree to that fact.

Sounds to me like you lads have to stand up for your rights, im in Canada not the US but there are labor laws that all companies have to follow. And i would suggest you try and get better union representation as it appears you dont have much.

I totally agree, however the Union that governs and negotiates contracts for Premise Technicians, from one district to the next, will not stand up for the rights of Premise Technicians because it will put the rights and the achievements that they currently have in their contract at jeopardy. Ohhh do not get me wrong, they are perfectly willing to take our union dues, which are an equal amount of any union member. And I guarantee the Union will be insistent on Premise Technicians being on the strike line when THEIR rights are being threatened by contract negotiations. Yet they just do not understand why we would want something like EQUAL rights guaranteed by the contract.

So yes I totally agree, Premise Technicians need to get away from the CWA and need to join the Teamsters or even create their own Union. But I am weird I believe equal treatment and equal representation for ALL members or employees. And that, in this day and age, seems to be an unacceptable and unrealistic belief or desire for new employees governed by the CWA.

[gman2277]

i still cant beleive the prem techs are under different agreement then everyone else.Thats really *****.The contract should cover all skill sets and positions.Did you uys vote the union in after the intial contract or something.

[ExPrem Tech thanks GOD]

i still cant beleive the prem techs are under different agreement then everyone else.Thats really *****.The contract should cover all skill sets and positions.Did you uys vote the union in after the intial contract or something.

Here is how it all went down. About four years or so ago, the company came to each of the respective districts and offered them an opportunity to sign off on and endorse an appendix to the core contract, never mind the fact that there were all ready provisions under the core contract that actually covered hourly employees that have almost identical job criteria as PT's. This appendix, known as Appendix J, created under the all ready negotiated contract the position known as Premise Technician. Appendix J from then to today has had no change except for PT's are guaranteed 32hours of work per week, everyone else is guaranteed 40 hours. Also the Time and Title, your time working in a position before you can transfer out of a PT department, was downgraded by 6 months. And there was a 3.259 hourly pay rate increase. Most of the districts initially refused to the agreement in hopes of negotiating a contract that gave PT's access to the same rights in the core contract. The company responded that there would be no negotiations the Union could take it or leave it and that they would gladly assign this work to third party sub contractors. Some districts bowed to the companies influence, whether by bribe, which is my personal opinion did happen in some cases, or simply seeing that they could loose possibly thousands of new heads and most importantly thousands of new heads for Union dues. Other districts refused to sign off on Appendix J, that's why up until last year there were districts that did not have Premise Techs. But after this last contract I believe, not 100% sure though, all districts have Premise Technicians.

So from the beginning the Union has been the body to negotiate contracts for Premise Technicians, even before the first PT was hired on. And during the contract negotiations last year, there was not one single Premise Technician chosen by the Union to represent Premise Technicians during contract negotiations, but there were plenty of current and retired employees on these contract negotiations boards, making sure they got to keep what they have had.

When I hired back on there were hardly any old employees who were Premise Technicians. None that I met personally for sure and none that were on the internet letting others know what Premise Technicians have to put up with from the company and their own Union. So we had no inclination as how discriminatory appendix J was towards PT's as compared to the core contract. So all the premtechs told them selves and listened to their Union leadership that said they would make things better by fair and equal rights to the core contract at the next contract negotiations. We were told they were behind us, 100%. Hell we even sent to the district leadership(which they asked for from us), before the contract negotiations what three things would we absolutely insist on striking for and that if not achieved at the negotiations the Union was to declare a work stoppage and strike for. Actually I sent in 27 items and suggestions for comprehensive coverage. During the contract negotiations, the company and the Union stalled and stalled and stalled. We were given ultimatums by the company and the Union leadership never pulled the trigger on a strike. Next thing we know, District 2 I believe, has a tentative agreement, even though there was supposedly a "Gentleman's Agreement" among the districts to not enter a tentative agreement until all districts were satisfied with the contract negotiations. And that sufficiently put a nail in everyone's coffin in regards to contract negotiations. So there you have it thats how things are how they are up to today.

I myself got tired of the discrimination and left the company. The only option a Premise Technician has today is the same option that they had the day that first district entered into a tentative agreement, which is for every PT to resign from the Union. Which I seriously believe will make the Union look up and take notice of what Premise Technicians are asking for, which in all honesty is equal representation by their Union and equal rights in the contract. Nothing more. But the Union would turn around and ask all the members to show disrespect towards PT's if Premeise Technicians were to do so. So not only would the PT's be mistreated by the company now all the other outside field techs in other positions would treat PT's with equal disdain. So for a Prem Tech its a no win situation, at least until the numbers of PT's are greater than all the other outside field positions and would have greater power as the majority in the Union.

[lastcenturytel]

I worked for SBC/AT&T for seven years as a service tech. I left to get out of CA, too crazy there, and took a job with what was then, little, tiny Centurytel. This early spring I applied for a Prem tech job back in CA, because there comes a point every winter/spring I get so friggin' tired of the constant wind and snow that I want to just pack it up and get the hell out. Usually around that point is when the weather starts to turn for the better and before I know it its 5 months of near perfect t-shirt weather. Anyhow....I submitted my resume and of course they passed me thru the first couple of stages(waved the T-TAB or whatever test they're using now). But when I asked what the pay scale was for prem tech, I couldn't get an answer. Human resources would not tell me. They claimed they didn't know. My copy of the 2004 CWA contract was pre-prem tech so it was no help. I was able to search on the internet and found a copy of the 2009 CWA contract. Not too much in appendix J, it's pretty brief. I called the HR lady back and told her no thanks, I wasn't taking a job with a top pay of $20/hour.

Of course the company has really been undercutting the union for at least the past 7 years. After the big hiring boom in 1999-2001 with the DSL push, they completely reversed directions. After that it seems almost everyone hired was a term employee. And if you were regular fulltime you couldn't transfer to any other job unless you were at the top of the senority ladder, it was just impossible. But hey, now I'm at CenturyTel-Pacific Telecom-old rural GTE-old rural Ameritech-Madison River-Embarq-Qwest telephone company....so it's all good. http://www.line-man....tyle_emoticons/default/1sm290superman.gif

[ExPrem Tech thanks GOD]

I worked for SBC/AT&T for seven years as a service tech. I left to get out of CA, too crazy there, and took a job with what was then, little, tiny Centurytel. This early spring I applied for a Prem tech job back in CA, because there comes a point every winter/spring I get so friggin' tired of the constant wind and snow that I want to just pack it up and get the hell out. Usually around that point is when the weather starts to turn for the better and before I know it its 5 months of near perfect t-shirt weather. Anyhow....I submitted my resume and of course they passed me thru the first couple of stages(waved the T-TAB or whatever test they're using now). But when I asked what the pay scale was for prem tech, I couldn't get an answer. Human resources would not tell me. They claimed they didn't know. My copy of the 2004 CWA contract was pre-prem tech so it was no help. I was able to search on the internet and found a copy of the 2009 CWA contract. Not too much in appendix J, it's pretty brief. I called the HR lady back and told her no thanks, I wasn't taking a job with a top pay of $20/hour.

Of course the company has really been undercutting the union for at least the past 7 years. After the big hiring boom in 1999-2001 with the DSL push, they completely reversed directions. After that it seems almost everyone hired was a term employee. And if you were regular fulltime you couldn't transfer to any other job unless you were at the top of the senority ladder, it was just impossible. But hey, now I'm at CenturyTel-Pacific Telecom-old rural GTE-old rural Ameritech-Madison River-Embarq-Qwest telephone company....so it's all good. http://www.line-man....tyle_emoticons/default/1sm290superman.gif

I think you have probably added five years to your life NOT coming back into an AT&T system. The saddest thing of all is that SBC was very successful under Ed Whitaker. He realized that in order to be successful you had to give and take as far as the Union was concerned. Now the company has that mentality, with help from the current employment state and economy in this country, of take it or leave it. I never understood how SBC buying out BellSouth/AT&T meant that SBC, now AT&T had to take on the worst of the worst of the top level management of the former.

[lugnut77]

[/quote]

I think you have probably added five years to your life NOT coming back into an AT&T system. The saddest thing of all is that SBC was very successful under Ed Whitaker. He realized that in order to be successful you had to give and take as far as the Union was concerned. Now the company has that mentality, with help from the current employment state and economy in this country, of take it or leave it. I never understood how SBC buying out BellSouth/AT&T meant that SBC, now AT&T had to take on the worst of the worst of the top level management of the former.
[/quote]


You have to realize that when Southwestern Bell started buying up the other RBOC's, they always took the worst practices, policies, and upper management to replace their own!


RBOC=Regional Bell Operating Company...fyi

Edited by lugnut77, 25 August 2010 - 07:12 PM.

[18ftdaredevil]

here in florida the union does not represent the prem techs so they get treated pretty bad i have talked to a couple that say they work thru there lunch and overtime that they do not claim just to make there numbers that are truely unattainable. they are so scared of loosing there jobs the company gets them to do anything they want. One guy told me that it is not uncommon to work til 8 or 9 at night ad show til 6. i personally wish we went back to bellsouth we didnt have all this bs. At&t sux to work for every quarter there is another surplus and i believe there will continue to be until the company can get enough people off payroll to break the union, then they will hire people back as limited term. actually i have read some internal documents that talk about this type of scenario they are calling it the att force flex plan.