Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

So AT&T committed fraud. Oh there are laws against that. So our next raise will be used for payoffs...outstanding

There's no "uniparty" on telco. Whether it is net neutrality or municipal broadband, the parties are quite separate and apart.

Now, on Modern Monetary Theory/Quantitative Easing (Fed money printing), on that issue, I see quite the uniparty.

when a company has to rely on legislature to save their business you know you are in trouble.

att and saving jobs can't be said in the same sentence with a straight face.

The punishment for this fraud and conspiracy needs to be bigger than the cost of doing business and whatever the company thinks they’re getting as a benefit.

People need to go to jail, these companies need to pay back government contracts.

Until the punishment fits the crime, the white collar criminals of our executive team won’t stop doing illegal and shady things.

Didn’t AT&T do some big campaign a few months ago on “closing the digital divide” ?

Why didn’t stink use this money to actually build out more access?

So much talk about doing the right thing, supporting customers, and whatever the f meaningful connections means but no one ever does it.

The PAC has zero accountability to the donators, you would be better off burning the cash for heat or invest for your grandkids education. Don’t fall for the scam, no matter what the sales pitch is, and it isn’t going to save your job.

Everything about the AT&T PAC involving “regular” employees needs to be stopped immediately.

According to https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/at-t-inc/C00109017/summary/2020

The AT&T PAC raised/donated about $4.7 million last year and that’s because the company is pressuring L1/L2 employees to donate!!

I’d figure there are a lot fewer millionaires in that pool of people than the executive suite. Stank’s compensation was $21 million last year. All other commentary on that aside, how about reducing that to $16 million so the other 5 can fund the pac?

The other thing people don’t talk about is $20 million is per year and the guy has been here for how long? Most of us will never get to his level of wealth and it’s disgusting for the average employee to be pressured into funding a corporate agenda.

DO NOT DONATE any part of your salary to PAC. The executive team has more than enough money to contribute those millions themselves.

Not sure the intent or value of the “want some cheese with that whine” statement.

Commenter - if you’re thinking we’re just a bunch of people sitting around complaining you’re missing the point that this company was at the very least complicit in major fraud and misuse of customer data.

See what happens if you tried put a false performance review in place that you pretended was from your manager saying how great you were. You’d likely be fired. Where’s the repercussions for the execs who allowed this to happen?

I saw a comment earlier on this thread that has since been removed that named a former AT&T exec involved in the Cohen stuff. Seems like the company has a relationship with the moderators of this board to remove posts that name names (minus Stankey?)

Not sure who you are or what department you work in but I’m guessing HR, government affairs, executive support, or PR. Call us whiny all you want and we’ll call you what you are: unethical frauds.

Want some cheese with that whine?

"The FCC is just as much to blame."

The former chair of the FCC is just as much to blame - Trump's appointee Ajit Pai was an industry shill just like all his other agency heads.

I don't see RICO here. Instead, the possible crime would be conspiracy to defraud the United States, 18 U.S.C. § 371.
https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-923-18-usc-371-conspiracy-defraud-us
"To conspire to defraud the United States means primarily to cheat the Government out of property or money, but it also means to interfere with or obstruct one of its lawful governmental functions by deceit, craft or trickery, or at least by means that are dishonest."

This emailing campaign sounds "dishonest", particularly if an email was sent on behalf of a real person that didn't intend to send the email.

But of course, there are two systems of justice, one for the little people, and one for the corporations and 1%.

There isn’t a.Gov alphabet agency which comes to mind that isn’t thoroughly corrupt and compromised and only exist to protect and assist the very companies they pretend to be regulating. The FCC is just as much to blame. At least I’ll get to laugh out loud next time I have to read and review the COBC

What? Stink and the deathstar were engaged in fraud, corruption, and a conspiracy? Well, this is my shocked face.

Everyone involved, not just at T but at each and every company, should face RICO statutes. After all, this does fall under that umbrella.

As a 1st level, we were required to attend PAC meetings and arm twisted to give until it hurts. A few uneducated social promotees people of color would give to keep their jobs. I asked for a spreadsheet of where and how our money was used and never got it. I did know that this particular lobby employee used the PAC dollars to eat at expensive restaurants and play golf while I was working my ar-e off.
Having a engineering degree I wasn't worried about being fired as I could get a EE job just about anywhere as I HAD A SKILL not just a SKIN COLOR. I never gave so much as a penny. One white guy gave and told me he considered this an insurance policy. The company doesn't spend money to build it's brand or help employees or customers. They ask everyone to give so that the executives can receive big raises while they raid the treasury.

"Then the company denies it by saying oh no we just paid a consultant $4 million for research, we didn’t know this was happening. COME ON."

I get the feeling that there's a lot of high-level meetings in this company where Stankey tells someone to get something done, but to not tell him how they did it under any circumstances. This person knows full well that they may have to "retire" after the job is done, but they also know some shady executive consulting firm is standing by to hire them back on.

Agree this is part of what the company would consider lobbying so the government/public affairs team is probably responsible.

This is a little bigger than sending letters off to trade groups - they hired vendors to capture names and emails for things like newsletters, offers, sweepstakes... then used that info to associate their names with comments that supported the company’s position.

This is more like putting your name on a list of employees who agree with everything Stankey had to say, then sending that list of people to the government. Then the company denies it by saying oh no we just paid a consultant $4 million for research, we didn’t know this was happening. COME ON.

"This is part of what's called "lobbying". In this case, it appears the entire broadband industry was involved."

That's what they'd like you to think, but a company posing as a person on a platform for public comment on proposed policy isn't anything close to "lobbying".

And this isn't just "posing as someone else" - this is organized fraud on a pretty large scale.

This is part of what's called "lobbying". In this case, it appears the entire broadband industry was involved.

It doesn't make it right, but it's exactly what oil companies, airlines, banks, even the NRA do during public comment periods to regulating bodies.

There really is zero integrity at the top of this company, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we were funding Central American death squads clear-cutting jungle in the Amazon with child labor so Stankey has endangered teak wood to burn in his office fireplace when it drops below 70 degrees in Dallas.

How is any of this a surprise? This ethical company pay Trump’s lawyer for access, anything is on the table until someone gets caught. Why did Randy and Stephens get big consulting contracts after “retirement”? Their services are required as T is being sued by the SEC for selective disclosure. In the meantime, there is no money to support retiree benefits.

Most "lowly technicians" usually make at least $100k annually with not very much overtime, so, they're certainly not on the low end of the wages spectrum!

Good job of CNN being strong journalism and paying to ensure net neutrality is handled fairly for AT&T.

Not possible. AT&T reminds us constantly of how we act with intergrity, (they say it so it must be true). COBC applies to the C-Suite down to the lowly technician.