https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/brown-demand-answers-on-atandt-layoffs
18 replies (most recent on top)
By focusing on the percentage of union jobs cut, they're ignoring the July cuts of "managers" who don't manage anybody, but take up what would be craft jobs if the company's sneaky redefinition of the newer jobs as requiring management titles didn't make a loophole to exclude these workers from the possibility of union representation.
AT&T will "rectify" the percentage issue by laying off these "managers" as well, defeating congress' oversight by claiming , see... ...they also lay off managers, when they're really laying off what should be considered to be still more craft workers, but with pseudo-management titles.
Those actually doing direct work, whether union or "management" need to band together to lobby congress to withhold stimulus spending from AT&T for the severity of its misbehavior of taking past money intended to reduce the need for layoffs, then laying off anyway.
@1kat
As far as the stores are concerned, I'm hearing Covid-19 is part of the reason. Covid-19 has accelerated a trend to online purchasing. It's bye-bye brick and mortar. Ask J.C. Penny.
The reason is the same as always, either lack of work, or the work doesn't generate a profit for the company. This letter is a bit obtuse.
They need to look back a few years. AT&T has been sending work out of country for several years. India, Slovakia, Brazil, Philippines...any country they can get to save money with no benefits and low pay.
I don't see that AT&T is saying covid is the reason for the looming layoffs. Perhaps covid has resulted in the relatively small number of retail closures. In fact, I think covid has delayed some of the downsizing a few months - a few more paycheck working from home for many (that's cool). Seems like all else that is looming has been a combination of BAU downsizing + accelerated additional cuts (largely due to the light that Elliot Activist investor has shined on AT&T).
I am not so foolish as to think that this will slow or stop the layoffs in any way.
That said, it does bring me some level of satisfaction that they are publicly being called out on some of their BS, if nothing else.
And what value does this information requested pose to the Senate? What can they do? They sure can’t dictate to T to not reduce employee base.
How likely will it be that those senators get the correct # of impacted employees. T tends to behave like China's gov and minimize the numbers. Last time McFresh was offended claiming that the Numbers on the TV were a lie. Which was very pathetic since he was telling this to the employees, who was he trying to fool.
“We understand that for many businesses, the only response to the economic downturn resulting from the COVID-19 public health emergency has been to shutter their doors and lay off workers. We object, however, to corporations using the pandemic as justification for continuing to make anti-worker decisions that are aimed at boosting share price,” the senators wrote in a letter to AT&T CEO John Stankey.
Since December 2017, AT&T has laid off more than 40,000 of its employees. Those layoffs have occurred despite AT&T promises to hire 7,000 new employees and the $21 billion immediate tax windfall the company received as a result of the Republican-passed, corporate tax giveaway, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. As a result of these decisions, the percentage of AT&T employees represented by a union has decreased. This year, AT&T has approximately 246,000 employees, and only 98,400 are union members. That represents a decrease of 15 percentage points of unionized workers and calls into question the underlying objective of AT&T’s layoff announcement.
The senators are asking AT&T to provide a state-by-state breakdown of the current job cuts and projected job cuts for the remainder of 2020, and to indicate whether a union represents the affected workers in each state. They’re also asking the company to indicate whether any of the services previously performed by the workers whose jobs have been eliminated will now be performed by independent contractors, subcontracted out to a different company, or sent overseas.
In addition to Brown, the letter was signed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Cory Booker (D-NJ).
@zfh – do you realize that this idea of yours isn't new:
"They should penalize companies moving job to overseas with double taxation and remove all tax incentives at the expense of American Jobs. This is also tax evasion by companies (Companies save on ss taxes, medicare taxes, etc.) "
In fact, pretty much every democratic candidate for president has said this. But it never gets anywhere because the GOP never supports it.
I'm just pointing this out because you seem to support the president, who does NOT support this idea, and I thought I'd take a chance to enlighten you.
open your eyes, you're being played by both sides
all those jobs that are in the article are all the deplorable s att is too good for. see you have to have at least a masters and get on the level of a principle or architect. if you have a BS or below att doesn't want you. lol can't say that with a straight face. att is joke consider it a blessing to leave the company the people are vile and senior management is clueless. has att done anything technical? oh wait they have uam they put on all the servers for identity management and they put virus protection on all the unix servers. that is so innovative.
@yhw: Hey, thanks for stopping by to share you opinion! Just out of curiosity, are you Randy, Stinky, or Jeffy?
While the looming layoffs have - and will - continue to cause anxiety and stress for many, most rational AT&T employees and stakeholders with reasonable awareness know that massive cuts are appropriate.
If it makes you feel better to be angry and blame mismanagement, go for it. Or go get another job. Or start your on business...
Another perspective, compared to the S&P 500, AT&T has been a poor investment over the last decade - though stockholders have made a decent return (with the dividend). However, there have been lots of well paid employees with great benefits during that time. Lots of AT&T employees and retirees - at all levels - are millionaires/multi-millionaires.
While there is much I dislike about our environment - including the continual outsourcing and downsizing, which I understand (though think we could go about it better at times) - AT&T has been good to me!
Oh my ... can you imagine if Stink gets hauled in before a senate committee to answer for his actions and the constant string of layoffs?
If ever I wished for the senate to have an investigation it's now. I'd love to see them expose Stink for the grotesque, greedy, arrogant, stupid, hollow, pile of garbage he is.
What do you think – how will this play out?
Will this blow up in the media mid-July, or not? The letter is co-signed with Sanders, Warren, Booker, who are bigger political names who could make enough noise to turn this into an election issue. Would they make it a spectacle & ask Stankey to testify before Congress?
On the other hand, layoffs are not illegal, and probing letters from Senators aren't too unusual, so this could fizzle out quickly. It may not be a big issue for voters.
One thing, though: it could force T to publicly release the layoff percentages, which they might otherwise keep private.
AT&T got itself wrapped around the axles when it tried to be sleazy and state that cuts/layoffs are related to pandemic. We all know if there is any truth to that, Time Warner should be impacted first, because that is the entity that can't produce or release movies to theaters any more, production of movies are at stop, sports programming is stopped. Time Warner revenue is pandemic impacted. AT&T telecommunications revenue is not pandemic impacted. The loss of DirectTV subscribers was occurring last year at even higher rates prior to any news about a pandemic.
Bottom line, a company is free to lay employees off for whatever reason. AT&T plans to cut people so its stock price can go up (as it is now being put under pressure by outside investors like Elliott and Paul Singer who have in fact lost money on their investment in AT&T minus dividends so far). It is how AT&T tries to contextualize the layoffs that gets them in these pickles of having to defend their position.
Send an email to all those senators stating they are cutting more jobs in July (upto 40%) and most of these jobs are being taken over by Tech Mahindra! I already see so many people from Tech Mahindra contacting our team for work they are trying to take over - moving most to Microsoft Azure cloud computing. This is the huge contract that AT&T signed last year with Tech Mahindra and Microsoft. Also, Trump needs to be notified (That stopping H1B is not the only solution still American jobs are massively moving to overseas). They should penalize companies moving job to overseas with double taxation and remove all tax incentives at the expense of American Jobs. This is also tax evasion by companies (Companies save on ss taxes, medicare taxes, etc.)