At the clang of the Midnight bell on Saturday, March 4^th, the contract between AT&T West and the District 9 chapter of the Communications Workers Of America expired.

Today the organizations are working without a contract and the union has staged a work slowdown. I don’t know much about the machinations of unions but I think I know how to interpret this excerpt from one of their latest news releases:

“We encourage all members to work safely and with the highest possible standards of quality. We want you to comply with all rules and procedures the Company has ever taught you – if they conflict, stop and notify a manager of the conflict so that it may be resolved. Ensure all tools, equipment, furniture, and materials are ergonomically proper, safe, and in proper condition before use. Additionally, ensure all plant and equipment complies with every safety, quality, and regulatory rule. Make certain that vehicles are properly maintained, inspected and safe.

Meanwhile, our bargaining committee will continue to bargain and our members will stay on the job – but it will not be business as usual!”

The negotiations continue but without much headway. What to do? Well, why not head out to the ballpark on opening day and enjoy two of America’s old pastimes, baseball and union rallies?

A good time was had by all. I wonder if the union paid to have members comp’ed to the game? And did they treat them to $10 beers and helpings of $8 garlic fries? It’s all part of a hard day’s work at the union.

Frankly, the whole spectacle disgusts me. The way AT&T runs their duopoly (Verizon being the only other player) makes the federal government look like the model of efficiency. And the CWA has been able to jack up their member’s pay and benefits to obsene levels. I was recently talking to an AT&T technician, probably around 40 years old. He was making $108,000 a year and was complaining that AT&T was attempting to take that salary down to a paltry $100K. This for technical work that could be learned in six months of training! Much of America’s competitiveness issues are reflected in this sorry story.

What do you think?

Randy Kremlacek

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted SIP PBX’s, pbx monitoring and Unified Communications.

Here’s the latest report from the Communications Workers Of America website regarding their union negotiations with AT&T:

Today the subcommittees met in an attempt to resolve some of our differences around Article 2 and Work Rules/Appendices.

In today’s formal session the Company rejected the Union proposal for time off. Our proposal included language that a minimum of 25% of a work group could be off at any given time.

The Company passed two more retrogressive proposals. The first would increase the number of unpaid days before receiving any sickness absence pay for employees with less than 8 years of service. The second one was in reference to Sunday premium pay. The company proposed to only pay time and one tenth per hour on Sunday instead of time and one half.

With only 10 days left before contract expiration, we have had 21 formal bargaining sessions, many subcommittee meetings, made 31 proposals to improve the contract, received 31 regressive proposals from the company and have reached 0 tentative agreements!

Gee, can you say strike? AT&T has been preparing for this eventuality for months. They’ve been busy training their non-union employees to take over when the union walks out. This does much to explain why the level of service at AT&T has slipped even further from their sub-par standards.

Teledynamic has been spreading the word to our customers to brace for the worst. Especially hard hit are new orders for lines or services. As one can imagine, the first priority in a work crisis is to try to maintain some level of customer service. New orders do not receive a high priority.

So, will this CWA strike be protracted or might the negotiators miraculously reach a breakthrough in the fleeting days remaining before the deadline? It is no secret that AT&T is spending massive resources on building their wireless business. Equally transparent is their de-emphasis on wireline business and cost cutting in this area. The majority of CWA workers at AT&T work on the wireline (analog and digital circuits) side of their business. It is my prognostication that AT&T is going to play hardball to drive down costs. And the union doesn’t have the economy on their side. I’m sure that the popular sentiment of the workers is that they are just glad to have a job, even if in the future it will pay a little less and include fewer benefits.

Let me know your thoughts.

Randy Kremlacek

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted SIP PBX’s, pbx monitoring and Unified Communications.

Yesterday a business associate and I were lamenting the state of customer service in our industry.  The discussion got around to AT&T and their perpetual poor service, now compounded by their recent layoffs.    We agreed that many of our customers don’t mind getting poor service from “the phone company”.   However, they have a much higher expectation when it comes to Teledynamic and other telecom providers.

Instead of whining about the unfairness of it all, maybe we should use this double standard to motivate us to improve our own service.   So Mr. Customer, you’ll punish me for service levels that would be fine if it was AT&T?  Fine, I accept the challenge and we’ll strive to provide an even-higher level of service.

Customer service in the time of recession is doubly challenging.    Revenues and profits are dropping but the cost of providing good service stays the same.   Some organizations will cut service levels to save money, hoping that customers will understand and remain loyal. Other companies such as ours just bite the financial bullet, keep service levels high and hope that the investment pays off in the long term.   Frankly, I don’t know which strategy is more financially sound.   And certainly both cause management to lose sleep.  

After our economy turns around, check back with me and I’ll let you know whether I made a sound investment!

Randy Kremlacek

Teledynamic Communications provides free educational materials about telecommunications on an ongoing basis to our subscribers and customers. We are a provider of a complete range of VOIP, telecom and data solutions for business.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a critic of the PBX-as-a-service industry.   For certain applications and customers, it’s the perfect solution.  In fact, our company sells hosted VOIP for specific applications.   However, much like its analog predecessor Centrex, it’s a one-size-fits-all product, with very little capability to customize the service to meet your business needs.   Therefore, it works well in simpler, less communications-intensive businesses.  However, a technology assessment is not what this post is all about.

Today, the hosted VOIP marketplace is the wild west.  There are virtually hundreds of companies providing the service, most with little business history and no track records.   The technology and business case of hosted VOIP can be quite compelling, but beware the industry.  After all, you entrusting your entire business communications to these folks.

There are some excellent players in the marketplace who’ve got sustainable business models and have been in the game for years.   San Francisco-based CallTower has been around since the turn of the century and is thriving.    Wholesale Hosted VOIP provider, New Global Telecom (NGT) boasts of beginning their business way back in 1996, making them a grandfather of the industry.

However, these two are exceptions in this wild territory.   Large providers such as SunRocket and VOIP Inc. both evaporated in the past year leaving customers without service.   Locally, a swarmy company by the name of Xiptel, headed by the fast and double talking Peter Geddes did the ol’ corporate switcheroo buying out the assets of the old company and reviving themselves the next day as, guess what, Xipcom dga XIPTEL.   However, they “forgot” to tell their customers and agents.   Pretty sleazy if you ask me.

As time goes by, the industry will mature, the weak will whither and die and the sleazeballs move to the next wild west game.  Until then, be very careful when considering hosted PBX.  there are some safe choices, but you’ll have to do some heavy digging to find the gems.

I’d like to hear about your experiences.

Randy Kremlacek

Teledynamic Communications provides free educational materials about telecommunications on an ongoing basis to our subscribers and customers. The company provides a complete range of VOIP, telecom and data solutions for business.

Sprint

Losing a lot of lines, especially with residential to cellular and cable as well as competition in small to midsize business.

XO

Carl Icahn is using tricks to try to get more control over XO and away from the shareholders.  XO stock at .18 cents per share and trading over the board.  De listed – no longer on NASDAQ. 

AT&T

Recently stopped using its Vonage-like service

TW Telecom (Formerly Time Warner)

Shares tumble as economic slowdown is pressuring revenue.  Recently trading at 

Had to disconnected a lot of customers who are not paying building

PAETEC

Missed their earnings and revenue projections. Stocks fell accordingly.  Stocks down and trading at .92 cents.

CBeyond

Stock took a big hit and analysts have downgraded it.  Trading at $11.59, down from a high of $46 earlier this year

What’s sad is that these salespeople are doing their companies and the telecom industry a disservice.  Communicating to the world a grim (and inaccurate picture of  impending death and destruction spreads unfounded fears about the telecom industry.   You would think that a perceptive salesperson would have learned long ago that fear breeds indecision.  Why would a customer make a change in carriers today if the messages that they hear in the sales process are filled with anecdotes of the demise of the industry. The Teledynamic Service Department has received several calls asking for their opinion on the health of carriers.  We always respond with a message that we believe that the carriers will survive and will be around for the long haul.

Guys, why not clean up the message and provide your prospects, partners and customers a positive voice in this recessionary environment.   Stop sniping and get back to helping your customers!

Randy Kremlacek

Teledynamic Communications provides free educational materials about telecommunications on an ongoing basis to our subscribers and customers. We are a provider of a complete range of VOIP, telecom and data solutions for business