Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSpecialist
Lurch you sound like a disgruntled former phone guy.
Let me tell you about the CATV industry since I worked it for 10 years. They work you like dogs, don't care about your safety, and treat you like a 5 year old. I now work for Verizon, for the last 13 years. It is like apples and oranges my friend. FIOS work is not toning out a pair of wires, it requires many different skill sets. You need to know how to splice fiber, run wire, networking, catv etc.
Just to prove it, VZ bitched and moaned they were getting the ass kicked by Concast cheap labor. So they heavily recruited a crapload of them. The company thought these guys were gonna come in and work circles around us. Wrong, after 8 months on the job they were all threatend with termination for low productivity, half of them had damage complaints every other day. Well they all got let go.
Now let me tell you the reason I deserve a raise, and record profits have nothing to do with it.
1. I do a quality job every day, no matter if your house is a palace, or a $hithole.
2. When I leave, your fios service works, you know how to use it, and are very happy with the service you recieved.
3. See above about former concast workers, no not any chimp can do my job
4. The cost of living is out of control, food, oil, gasoline is through the roof, college cost are rising every year.
5. Without my union brothers and sisters this company would'nt be worth %$%$%$%$, and the company knows it or they would have been no progress sat night, and we would be picketing now, we make the profits not the other way around we are not asking for a simple split across the board of the companies profit, we are asking for a decent living wage, and to keep our health benefits, and pensions status quo.
INstead of being pissed at us, why don't you get pissed at your crappy employer.
BTW if Concast does'nt unionize thats something those people will have to live with, I know I will still sleep fine at night.
Union Steward
IBEW Local 2222
Hang Tough
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I am not a pissed off Phone guy but did work for Comcast for 11 years. I started off as an installer and worked my way through many types of jobs in my career at Comcast. I was one of the very first group of employees who did the cable modem project around Boston so we had to understand voice, video and data services in 1995'. I am very proud of the work that I did there and know that at EVERY job I completed I gave 100%. I did my own install at my house I bought in 97' and I have never needed a service call or lost service on my cable modem....why because the install was done properly and designed to support the return cable plant.
I was one of those employees who did high quality work as well and was paid VERY well while there. When I left 10 years ago my NON UNION salary was just below 60K/year(not bad for a 25 year old kid!). I left the company because I was offered a job at Nortel because of my cable modem / networking skill set that the non Union company provided. Now because of that cable modem skill set I am a highly paid high level network engineer for Juniper Networks with my salary more than doubling since I left Comcast
. I LOVE MY JOB AND THE COMPANY I WORK FOR!!
We all know that there are slackers who work for both companies so do not say that every VZ worker does high quality work. One of the reasons why my friend who works for VZ is so pissed is because of the high percentage of slackers in his garage but because of the Union there is nothing VZ can do about it.
The workers from Comcast who left to go to VZ are the slackers that Comcast does not want. Believe me we had slackers leave to go to RCN and we were happy to get rid of them. Comcast retains their best employees because when I worked there they offered me more money to stay.....that would never happen at VZ.
With Comcast we had the ability to get rid of employees who were slackers but does VZ have that same option? NO as long as they do not break any rules they stay forever! With the slackers being around they are preventing you from being making a higher salary.
I do agree that you need a pay raise BUT do the slackers?
If the union is so good why are there slackers? IMO unions promote slacker workers because they are protected.
Why doesnt the union get rid of the slackers in my friends garage?
Why should VZ pay these slacker employees a higher wage and better benefits?
Since VZ are paying 100% of your health care costs and with that cost increasing every year maybe VZ is saying you get a 0% pay raise but not have to pay any % of your health care costs?
Or maybe they will give you a 10% pay raise but then have to pay 10% of your health care costs?
What are the sticking points of the contract?