While AT&T pushes retrogressive proposals and seeks outrageous concessions from the bargaining units, they look to increase dividend payments to investors while they say they can’t afford us.  They cry about costs of workers who created the profits AT&T enjoys and they now try to throw the current and retired employees to the curb while their execs pad their wallets.

AT&T was prominent in yesterday’s national news. Speaking to the Economic Club of Washington yesterday AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said “this environment is tough, but it really isn’t much more difficult in our industry than what we experienced in the ’01-’02 time frame.”
 
Mr. Stephenson needs to be reminded that the 2002 Contract was not retrogressive!
 
WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson on Wednesday compared the current economic environment to the period earlier in the decade when it kept raising its dividend, saying he was proud of that history.
Stephenson made the comments in response to a question about the safety of its dividend amid the current economic turmoil.

He said he was "very proud" of the company's history of continuing to raise its dividend consistently, even amid challenging economic times.

"This environment is tough, but it really isn't much more difficult ... than what we experienced in the '01-'02 timeframe," he told a meeting of the Economic Club of Washington.

AT&T's shares were up about 2 percent at $23.51 on the New York Stock Exchange in mid-morning trading.

PLEASE VOTE YES to authorize CWA President Larry Cohen to call a strike, should one be necessary, against the segment of AT&T you are employed by.
 
Let’s MOBILIZE and show the public the REAL AT&T. The AT&T that demands give backs while earning BILLIONS of dollars on the backs of their employees. The AT&T that that wants to introduce us to retro-healthcare.