June 16, 2020
AT&T announced today they intend to slash 176 Customer Systems Technician (CST) jobs in Illinois and Northwest Indiana affecting employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 21 (IBEW 21). The job losses are due to the continual evolution of AT&T’s business model.
Representatives from the IBEW and AT&T have been in talks for weeks regarding the impact of the cuts and how to lower the number of employees who could be forced to involuntarily leave the company. As we layout some of the details we must remind all members that this situation is fluid and things can change as the process of saving as many positions as possible continues.
The first phase is the announcement of an enhanced voluntary separation package which is being offered to eligible IBEW employees in Title Groups 2 which includes AFO, Business Services and Construction.
A limited number of Central Office and Power Technicians in Title Group 1 will be offered the Enhanced General SIPP. The hope is that if there are not enough SIPP takers in Group 2 employees in Title Group 1 would be able to offset a potential Title Group 2 surplus.
AT&T and the IBEW have agreed to the one-time increase in the SIPP amount as an incentive to allow employees who have been considering leaving the company to retiree and save the position of other employees who are not ready to leave their employment with AT&T.