Below is the response from the Communications & Technologies Office  to AT&T Labor Relations VP Mark Royse.

In Unity,
Roy Hegenbart
President, CWA Local 3250

An Open Letter to CWA Members from the CWA!

In August, Mark Royse, vice president of labor relations at AT&T, sent out his first email to AT&T employees on our upcoming bargaining.

Verizon had just signed a new contract with the CWA which had very minor cost shifting in health care. Royse was quick to assert that AT&T is not Verizon and we should not expect to get the same treatment as Verizon employees.

He's at it again - trying to soften up our members to take concessions before we even pass the first demand across the bargaining table. He wants us to accept "similar changes" to what the managers have had to take (because they don't have the right to bargain). He says it's "progress" that there was some additional cost shifting for our brothers and sisters in AT&T Mobility.

We have this to say to Mr. Royse: Bargain with our bargaining teams! Don't try to tell us that bargaining is just "part of the regular course of business between the Company and the Unions." It is more than that to us. We only get a chance once every four years to address key issues with AT&T and, if the Company makes unreasonable demands, it definitely will be a "distraction" from serving our customers.

If Mr. Royse wants to write letters, let him write to Congress supporting health care reform. If he wants a level playing field with non-Union cable, let him spend his time working for the Employee Free Choice Act which will make it easier for cable workers to organize into a Union.

Let AT&T know you will support your bargaining teams. If Mr. Royse keeps sending these messages to our members, they will end up in the SPAM folder where they belong. We'll take our bargaining advice from our Union, not AT&T.