ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220072
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID LAYMAN
AS A LOCAL leader of the Communications Workers of America, I read Professor E. Thomas Garman's Feb. 1 commentary (``New times call for a new partnership'') with special interest.
Garman has the essential story right: We in CWA did come through our recent negotiations with Bell Atlantic, continuing a partnership that will serve both union members and the company well. And the telecommunications industry is going through a veritable explosion as new technologies are introduced and competition intensifies.
We believe our agreement with Bell Atlantic will serve customers and consumers well by assuring them of a dependable, well-trained and dedicated unionized work force. Several major developments have occurred recently that have a direct bearing on this subject:
Our new contract with Bell Atlantic didn't come easily, and was achieved after five months of work-place mobilization and an extensive media campaign. Our efforts were designed not only to win wage improvements and protect such hard-won benefits as health insurance and pensions, but also to make sure our members are trained for the jobs of the future. Bell Atlantic, eager and prepared to be a ``major player'' in the communications industry of the future, also won by retaining a trained and dedicated work force. Contrary to Garman's commentary, this has become a ``win-win'' situation for the workers and the company.
Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, in a major policy speech at the George Washington University School of Business, proposed tax breaks for businesses that act responsibly toward their workers. This was almost a direct response to AT&T's actions, which earlier this year - either in a play to Wall Street or to right-size for future competition (and the jury is still out on which of these scenarios was more dominant) - announced plans to cut 40,000 jobs. Admitting he was only floating a ``trial balloon,'' Reich included worker retraining, health insurance and pensions among the possible triggers on tax breaks. While some of us within CWA may support the Reich plan as a possible way to slow down the loss of this country's good-paying jobs, others of us view the secretary's remarks as a sad commentary on the state of business ethics and corporate citizenship today.
Congress passed and the president signed the first major reform of the nation's telecommunications laws in more than six decades. This will open up competition in ways that none of us totally understand yet. What we do know is that some long-distance companies like AT&T will be able to offer Bell Atlantic customers ``local service;'' some local service companies like Bell Atlantic will be able to offer AT&T customers ``long distance;'' and cable companies will be somewhere in the thick of it.
And we in CWA will be in the thick of it, too, continuing to extend the union umbrella to workers in large and small companies across the land as we have for nearly 58 years. As Garman suggested, our members - the employees who made sacrifices to keep the phones working during the recent East Coast blizzard - are the ``competitive strength'' that will keep companies like Bell Atlantic and AT&T on top in the coming scramble for consumer dollars.
We can only hope that the terrible toll of downsizing, the reckless destruction of good jobs, is near an end, and that corporate America will act responsibly, without demanding tax breaks to do so.
David Layman of Buchanan is an executive board member of the Communications Workers of America.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB