https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/us/07verizon.html

This should be interesting...

Union will have a tough time winnig much on this one. Cable companies are beating up Verizon with service. At least where I am in NY.

It sounds as if Verizon is trying to avoid having to dedicate ALL income to pensions in 10-15 years. Somewhat like the auto companies have already slammed up against.

Our office is across the street from the old New England Telephone headquarters @ 185 Franklin St. in Boston. That building has supposedly been sold as Verizon has pretty much moved all 4E, 5E and DMS related work to NYC....although the company will remain on a few floors for switch/network gear and some administrative work.

Every time there is a strike, we are able to look out of the office windows, see their workers march around the building, carrying picket signs and chanting/yelling their message(s).

I suspect that will hold true tomorrow.

Didn't they just have a strike 6-months ago?

And if Verizon is in the red, good luck getting any of your demands.

@Kumba:

We haven't been on strike since 2000.

Verizon is still making a lot of money where I work which is NYC.

Honestly, if they get away with 10% of what they had put on the table, I don't need this job anymore.

They know that the time is right and that Union will gain absolutely no support from the rest of the population...

God helps us all.

hitechcomm same here. Comcast has been kicking the crap out of Verizon in the sales and service departments up this way and it seems like they don't even want the landline business anymore.

There is renewed talk that Verizon wants to completely exit New England.

If that were to happen, the only 2 companies that come to mind as possible buyers for the networks in Massachusetts and Rhode Island would be Fairpoint (now the RBOC in Maine, New Hampshire & Vermont) or at&t (the RBOC for most of Conneticut).

For those who don't know or don't understand why we wear read on Thursdays...

https://www.cwa2201.org/?zone=/unionactive/private_view_page.cfm&page=Why20We20Wear20Red

I'm assuming that you meant to say "red" in your statement.

Frankly, in today's economic environment, I'd be more happy to have a job. The last thing that I'd be doing is striking against the very hand that feeds me. I can assure you that finding a job is nearly non-existent in our industry. I'd be careful if I were you. We all need to eat and feed our families. What levels of profit that your employer makes (or doesn't make) isn't significant. Keeping your job IS. Backing your employer into a corner will net you with a net loss. I assure you of this.

I'd be thankful to have a job if I were you. Take my comments for what they are worth.

Ed,

I was only speaking for myself, and honestly understand your point of view very well...however...

The only reason I stuck with this job were medical and pension benefits. If that is to be taken away, I'm out. My family will have to go through the stress of moving five states away and everything else I had intended to avoid all along which will be no fun, but I won't miss the telecom industry at all...not for one split second.

I'm perfectly aware that vast majority of my fellow employees will not have this option. My prayers will be with them.

Apologies for the typo...I'm usually more careful.

"If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool."
— Abraham Lincoln

Ed,

Like ajkula66, I understand your point of view, and would prefer going to work tomorrow over sitting home, but where does it end? At some point someone has to make a stand or there will be no middle class left. Just the rich and those that are on welfare or struggling to make ends meet.

I'm as pro-business as they come, but when a company can pay someone $55,000 a day 365 days a year (if he is worth it, good for him!), and just last week announced 10 billion in dividend payouts, only to turn around and demand union employees take what amounts to a $20,000 pay cut on an average salary, that is the best example of greed I've seen in a while.

How it will all play out, nobody knows, but like ajkula66, I probably wont stick around to find out.

In Toledo, OH, the union scale is about $35/hr with the employee netting about $23 on the check and the rest going into health and pension. I think Verizon holdings before they exited OH was somewhat less, perhaps with top craft wages just under $20. From what I read, it looks like Vz is trying to rein in the hourly rate to $30. I'd take those wages with partial health and pension contributions....but that's just me.
Now, I get a few $$$ more, but I get to pay 100% of H&W and the liability insurance, etc. etc. etc.

At the end of the day, the strike will lose and you'll still take what they give you. It's tough to bring an automated operating telco to its knees, especially when they're in decline.
The net result is that they will simply clean house.

Carl

I guess unions strike for their own reasons,but in this declining ecocomy the CWA is putting their members and families thru a hardship and they certainly are not negotiating from a power position.

I can not see how you make up for all those lost wages.

It will take years to break even.

I would think the cable companies would be smiling.

I’m pretty surprised that things actually got to the point of striking. In the old days there was no place for customers to go for service. All that started changing some years ago. Now there are any number of other companies that are willing and able to provide those services.

I think both sides know this. In 2004 the unions continued working without a strike. There was a strike with the contract prior to that but it was very short, 2 or 3 days.

I think striking in today’s environment is a really drastic action and a really bad sign. There must be some serious differences. I hope things get resolved quickly. I have friends on both sides of the picket line. None of them wanted this.

Every day of the strike, Verizon saves money that the union members will never make up. As so many of us have Verizon in our 401k's and other mutual funds, I guess we should support the union and hope for a long strike.
Of course this is at the expense of the union striking members.
As a life member of CWA I know from experence the big losers are the, we, union members.

ajkula66:

I was busting your chops. Seriously though, this whole issue is a losing matter for both sides. I truly hope that you guys are spared from enduring a long strike and that all parties are able to reach a speedy settlement. It would be in the best interest of everyone. Best wishes.

Bill, the Lincoln quote may be apocryphal. it appears to be a popular one but rather hard to confirm. This page came up for me on a search. It is page 77 and continues to the next page. I was curious if the subject "labor" applied to an organized group or if it applied to labor as an activity. You know, as in "If a man will not work, neither let him eat."

here

...sorry to digress from the main topic.

All I can tell you Dave is it's been around as long as I can remember. However a search of the Internet can't confirm Lincoln actually said it. So chalk it up to the memories of an old union man. :shrug:

But union officials say that the field technicians and call center workers generally earn $60,000 to $77,000 before overtime and that benefits come to well under $50,000 a year.

Any truth to this? 50K for benies???

Depending on what part of the country you are in 60-77k (before taxes I assume) is not bad but could be better. In the metro NYC area for instance you would be hard pressed to support a family of two on that. But what I don't understand is what they are giving you for "under 50K" in the way of benefits? I get my health insurance through my wife's company. The Oxford policy covers both of us for everything including drugs for around 8K a year that the company pays fully. Even a family policy isn't that much more. I assume they contribute to your 401(K) also but geeze...

Don't think I'm picking on you, my biggest beef is with municipal unions that have police and fire and other muni workers wages at around 100k with retirement after 20 years at around 80% of that plus your overtime for the last two years. So if you started at age twenty at age 40 you can retire, collect a huge pension for the rest of your life (often more than what you were paid while you were working) while you start a new career. When times were good nobody cared but we can't afford that kind of excess now.

-Hal

When I was still working for AT&T our benefits were valued at about $8000, that's the value the company put on them. That's 10 years ago but I doubt they've quadrupled.

From what I've read the company placed over 100 givebacks on the table and when the strike was called not one had been removed. It's true it takes a long time to recover the money lost, but you never get back once it's given. I don't know all the details, seems no one ever does, but I do know that calling a strike is the last resort.

You can't work without a contract, unless the company agrees. You can't extend a contract, unless the company agrees. You can't continue to bargain unless the other side agrees and does so in good faith.

We don't know all the facts so we can't assume the walkout was what the union wanted. It takes two to Tango ya know.

Well here is another side to the strike... i had a customer ready to move yesterday ... Verizon was due between 9AM and 1PM to install the new service but never showed up.

My customer called Time Warner Cable... they will be installing their new lines within 3 days. This strike is going to create a lot of stories like this one.

I had a conversation with someone that supplies cable installers here on long island and he was requested to put 10 more trucks on the road yesterday.

Bill, You dont want to know what our benefits look like now...I assure you its nothing like it was in the good ol days before SBC. They used to be great..its gotten to the point I dropped them and picked up my wifes

All companies are cutting benefits. I know what you're talking about Anthony as mine have been cut drastically also.

This is nothing more than corporate greed, plain and simple. 100 give backs? Give me a break. This along with record profits? Both sides are taking a stand as to where the middle class is going to end up. Which side wins will effect us all.

:thumb:

Sam

I don't know why, but I was invited to join a conference call about the Verizon strike. Seems about the only thing Verizon has done so far is budget over a billion dollars for a negative ad blitz. There's been no movement on the issues at all. Though bargaining continues at Verizon's whim (they've canceled several sessions). So I'm hoping soon they will agree to some serious bargaining. Look what they are spending on their ad blitz. And they need givebacks?

This story reminds me of the old saw about the buggy whip makers when the automobile started to come onto the scene. Changing technology butts up against the old way of doing things.

Ergo, the new comms technologies are causing the demise of the landline service, and thus, the companies can no longer afford the sugar deals with the unions (or at least that is what they say). I am neither pro or anti labor. I have been on both sides of that issue so I see both sides. What I will say is that I fear that the effect of this strike might be to drive yet even more customers away from the landlines. That in my opinion is a negative.

However, unlike the buggy whip makers angst at the comming of the automobile, I feel that the landline will ultimately make a big comeback when the digital-ized, packet-ized, computerized comms systems break down due to whatever... solar flare, EMP, cyber warfare, etc. Once that digital house of cards falls, there will be no comming back. Then, people will realize the safety and security of the switched POTS service, and there will (IMHO) be a mass return to that technology.

Just my two cents worth.

I do hope in the meantime that the workers can find a solution that allows them to keep their jobs and benefits. In this economy, it is very hard to raise a family with a steady job, let alone without one. My thoughts are with them.

Best,

Joe Herdler

Verizon is an absolute mess and has been for years. Worst customer service in the country, bar none. Customers are leaving in droves to comcast and others, if you work there your lucky to have a job. I don't think I have been on a job that wasn't somehow screwed up by verizon in probably 7 to 10 years. The best thing I can say about them is they are consistant, in every state they provide service they are late, ineffecient and unconcerned.

Mark

They budget one billion for an anti-union ad blitz? Well, if that's the case I have to agree with you Bill. I think this illustrates everything that is wrong with corporate America today- screw the workers and make as much profit as you can.

Somehow I think this is going to be the worst strike in Verizon history.

-Hal

This pretty much says it all. From the CWA WEB site.

For those of you who are far from NYC, Verizon ran a whole-page-ad in NY Daily News two days ago, pretty much claiming that average craft pay is $91.5K, with another $50K in benefits.

I'd be more than happy to invite anyone and everyone on this board who passes by anywhere near this neck of the woods for a dinner with my family, and show them my W2s for the past 9 years since I got to the top pay. I've never even come close to that figure.

Benefits - as well as the way their value is calculated - are a whole different ballgame, but $50K purchases *a lot* especially when you're a major corporation and buy wholesale, so to speak...

I agree that this is likely to be the worst strike in the history of telecom industry in this country. Likely worse than NY Tel in 1971, and that one was bad from what I've gathered from people who were on both sides of it...

Personally, I've never subsribed to the philosophy that one is lucky to have a job...but that's just me...

Verizon is not a mess. Its "top chefs" have made a decision to abandon the copper plant as well as conventional fiber and placed all bets on FiOS and wireless.

What one may see as a mess was actually, for the most part, done on purpose.

All areas that end up with FiOS will eventually be sold off to Frontier or whoever else, and that will be the end of the landline game for VZ...leaving them with just the wireless side...what joy, what bliss...

Meanwhile, for more than two years now, we've been consistently pushed to turn up *all* special circuits before the actual due date...to keep the business customers from complaining, and boost the company's numbers...however meaningless these might be...

They've sold just about every building they had owned in pricey areas...you connect the dots.

Our future might be bleak, but the fight will most certainly be an interesting one.

My $0.02 only...

I agree 100% .... Verizon is an absolute mess and i have seen them screw up time after time after time since i entered the business in 1997. Just this month they failed to deliver the circuit for a T1 on time.... no call, no email, no notification ..they just didnt show up by the deadline. I am sure all of us on our side could spend hours writing up all of our Verizon issues.

Now they go on strike at a time when there is an alternative... if i owned a cable company i would put 10 extra trucks on the road. They are going to lose business left and right to the cable companies.

Having said all that i need to be very clear that i know the field techs are not the reason their service stinks .... the vast majority of the techs i have run across have been great.

But... i would be willing to trade places with most Verizon techs (forgetting the strike). A solid salary with a check every two weeks, health insurance (i pay $900 EVERY month), retirement account etc.

Although i have sold 4 systems in the past two weeks... after having sold 1 in the previous two months ... so for the next month i will enjoy being self employed :shrug:

Many people in Maine complain about Fairpoint and say that the sale never should of been allowed. I am so glad it did they have been great to work with and have invested $$$$$$ fixing the mess Verizon sold them.

I started at Wisconsin Telephone Company (AT&T) August 31st 1970 where a lot of promises were made. I transferred to Northwestern Bell/US WEST/QWEST where a lot of promises were broken. Primarily we were told that if we came to work for Wisconsin Telephone we wouldn't make as much as an electrician, plumber, printer or carpenter but we would be taken care of way better after retirement. One way they took care of me was by reducing my death benefit from $48,000 to $10,000

I had to report 3 dead lines yesterday to Verizon
90 minutes on hold never got to a human.
Finally used automated system ,had to make 3 seperate calls

Commitment date 9/16 8 am to 7 pm.

Ouch !!!
.

Ken, mine was better then yours 2 lines out and due date of 8-27-2011 9 till 5

I reported a single line at 9:45 AM on 8/15. The appointment time shown is 8:00 PM on 8/27. I do know that commitment times mean nothing during a strike. They simply dispatch by what trouble report is the closest to the repair person.

What puzzles me is that I have yet to see a Verizon vehicle on the street. I haven’t noticed any communication contractor’s vehicles in the area. I don’t know what they’re doing for people. The local management ranks have been cut to the bone. In past contracts letters were sent to retirees asking if they were available if a strike happened. Some of these folks actually did work. I’ve asked a number of my friends and no one received such a letter. I didn’t get one. Maybe it’s because we declined the offer in the past.

I can see the volume of trouble reports growing. The heavy rains that have recently hit parts of the east coast are going to add to the pile.

I talked to a splicer. He scheduled 3 weeks of vacation starting with the contract expiration date. He hopes he has enough vacation to make it to the end. I think this one is going to be a long one. I hope I’m wrong.

Your splicer friend is in for a very rude awakening. As of yesterday, Verizon cancelled all vacation time that was scheduled past the first week of strike.

They also sent out letters cancelling all of our benefits as of August 31st.

This strike is most certainly going to be a long one. The company had eight years to prepare for it, not to mention that the general public is not on the side of striking workforce.

God help us all.

ajkula66, I was in the 70 strike and that lasted 7 months. Believe me you'll make it. If I remember correctly the same thing happened then. My wife and I had just moved into our first house with a young baby. I ended up working two jobs of course we never make up what was lost but we made it. One thing to remember there is life after Ma Bell. I'm not pro company but I remember being told way back when that a contract is like a pie you can only cut it up in certain ways but thats all you get whats in the pie . Just my two cents. Good luck to you guys I wish you well.

No, I think that's all on purpose. I believe that inconveniencing the customer as much as possible and cutting customer service to near zero is part of Verizon's strategy to garner the publics sympathy. "Look what they are doing to you."

On a side note, I notice that I can't connect to a number of websites tonight. Wonder what's going on now.

-Hal

@hbiss:

My opinion is that VZ will do their best to keep (mostly large) businesses running and that it's the residential customer (that they want to get rid off in the first place) who will unfortunately take the brunt of the strike. We shall see...

@Thornhill:

I know I'll make it. Heck, I've made it through some pretty scary stuff I'd rather not touch on this (or any other public) forum...
Thanks for the well-wishes.

We really don't know the guts of what the strike is over. People that only see what the news says
moaning about the evil union people and the evil Corp. Just like the BP oil spill. The ocean is going to hell, the world will die etc,etc,etc.
And just like GM (where no union employee made the decision to make ugly cars in 70's and 80's- where Roger Smith presided over market share going from 76% to 30% with huge bonuses each year- nor did union employees decide to put chevy and olds engines in Cadillac or put Cadillac name on a Chevy Cavalier etc,etc,etc ad nausea.

I don't think Verizon union employes made the decisions that culminate in the above bad service.

Some other Bozo's did that.

Off the top of my head...and there's more:

1) Freezing the pensions as of 12/31/2011
2) Eliminating the "death benefit"
3) Eliminating double time pay for work performed on Sundays.

4) Eliminating double time pay for every hour worked past 49 hours in one week.

5) Eliminating shift differential.

6) Eliminating disability benefits for on-the-job accidents

7) Eliminating overtime cap for forced overtime (currently 20h/week)

8) Removing the clauses prohibiting contractors doing the work on Verizon facilities

9) Removing the "job security" clause (which calls for several steps that Verizon must follow before laying anyone off)

10) Removing "two man" and "high-crime area" job descriptions ( such as working on roofs and/or Harlem, where one is currently not allowed to work by themselves).

11) Change in current policies regarding sick days (with my 11 years I'd get 2 sick days a year)

12) Participation in costs of health care (about $7K a year)

13) Eliminating two holidays (MLK and Veteran's Day)

14) Removing the clause which provides that an employee can be permanently transferred only within 35 miles from the original reporting location.

15) Eliminating the tuition assistance program.

Thanks to everyone who expressed their support. It really means a lot.

The problem is right now....The economy is bad and they have the workers over a barrel. They know there are people that would die for a job qualified or not. Verizon would like to dump or sell off the residental service anyway...JMO

In Australia in the 90's, Telstra (the equivalent to VZ) spun off their Technician's into a new unit called NDC (network design & Construction) then further distanced itself and eventually sold most of it off.

There is a big ad in the paper today ... it says the company is asking for the employees to contribute towards their health insurance costs... that seems perfectly reasonable to me.

I had two more customers leave Verizon and sign up for phone service from the cable company yesterday.

Both sides of Verizon are making a big mistake this time!

If this were the case we would all be at work right now. Everyone that I work with has no problem, and fully expects to, have to pay into their health insurance. Trouble is this "minor" adjustment could end up costing each employee up to
$6000, with the total amount of "minor" adjustments somewhere around $20,000.

Are both sides making a mistake? You betcha! I'm disgusted at both sides of this, but all I can do is ask you not to drink the company kook-aid, just as I don't drink the union's. Someone is blantenly lying...

I'm not drinking the kool aid by any means ..... in my mind both the company and the union are absolutely nuts to be doing this right now..... i think both the company and the union bigwigs are getting what they deserve... it's the poor technicians who are getting screwed and i feel horrible for them.

Verizon Wireless is doing well ... the landline side is not.. and is going to continue to lose business... times have changed and the reality is that the profit margin has shrunk dramtically in the face of all of the competition from the CLEC's and cable companies.

Both sides should be doing ANYTHING they can to try and keep their customers .... certainly not going on strike .... both sides need to remember that there is now a legitimate alternative and people are not going to put up with the Verizon BS any more.

I talked to the Time Warner sales guy yesterday and he said every one of their reps is swamped with calls and they are closing deals as fast as they can see the people.

And... i have heard of several trouble tickets where customers were given a repair date 30 days out ... really??

It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

I just opened a trouble ticket with VZ and was on hold for only 30 seconds, (way below par).
I chatted up the rep and asked her if there were techs out in the field in case a dispatch was necessary to fix my issue and she tells me "Yes, management is out in the field doing the repair work." Needless to say, I spit my drink all over my desk.
Is that possible?

I noticed that as well.

My recent call into the Verizon ATRAC was answered very quickly. Normally calls into the center are queued up for 30 or more minutes. The reported trouble...a dead T1....was resolved within 48 hours. Given the circumstances, both my customer and I were quite happy with the results.

Last week I turned up 4 spans worth of trunks to Verizon's tandem in Providence RI. No problems at all. :thumb:

@dexman:

Out of sheer curiosity, what is average MTTR on T-1 circuits (in non-strike/normal conditions) in your experience?

TIA

It depends on the nature/cause of the outage.

A fiber that is cut or dug up by a backhoe or washed out by a flood can take a day or more to fix....depending on the severity and location of the cut/flooding ability to access the trouble...etc. Ditto if an outage is caused by a tree/limb taking down wires & telephone poles.

A dead NIU or bad cable pair can go an entire day...depending on how fast the auto test system completes its analysis, what Verizon's technicians have for a work load and when the trouble ticket is opened with the Verizon ATRAC...which, as I mentioned earlier, in normal times can run over 30 minutes in queue just to speak with someone. On multiple occasions, I've had queue waits in excess of 90 minutes.

If a cable crew is needed, then that will add time because the Special Services technician has to do his/her thing before the crew can be scheduled for a DPO. And, of course, technicians requiring site access need to adhere to the customer's hours of operation.

Issues with in-house T1s....for example 8001/T1ZF/BSTNMACOW03/BSTNMAFRDC0 usually take less time to resolve because the circuits terminate into a C.O. If the office is manned, then you could be looking at a few hours (again depending on the auto test system, nature of the problem, cause and workload).

If a C.O. is unmanned, then repair times are longer because the roamer needs to drive to the site. If the trouble needs to go to 2nd level or above, that will add to the MTR.

Interesting...thanks for sharing.

I was under the impression that most trouble tickets are opened through an email, at least in the area that I work in (NYC)...the fact that you have to wait as long as I do on hold is honestly quite ridiculous, since you're the one reporting the trouble...doh...

We are pressured to complete trouble tickets in *significantly* shorter period of time compared to what you're saying, but I guess that every area is different...

I'd have a lot of explaining to do if I were to take much more than two hours (from time of DPO) if I just swapped the R card...and verified that the service is back with no errors on the circuit...a F1 pair change can be an hour or eight hours depending on a variety of factors...and yes, once it goes to cable all bets are off...

"back to cable" = torture

For the customer/end user - absolutely.

If you're on my side of the street, though, torture is sitting in a completely isolated tower where no dialtone is present and waiting for someone on the other end to find a person who knows how to test a radio line...while the battery on your blackberry is running out...

In one of these charming spots someone actually wrote " In memory of all who died here waiting for the tester "...

If the general public only knew the extent of all sorts of important data that still travels over the Verizon's "money-losing landline side" they would be pretty amazed...and most of that stuff can never be provisioned by a cable company...

Verizon does have 2 online trouble ticket systems (VTAG and Quick Tick(?)).

At one time, tickets for Hi-Cap circuits could be opened through with the Quick Tick, but now VTAG is needed. Verizon has approved our office for VTAG access, but we're having trouble finding out who in our company acts as the administrator for that system.

Once a ticket is opened through the ATRAC, I can track it via Quick Tick.

I suspect that the goals set forth for trouble ticket resolution are fairly uniform throughout Verizon's areas. Whether or not those goals are being met is another story.

How about Fire Alarm circuits (and alarms in general).

Somewhere I saw a post from someone who was installing one of those "Help, I've fallen and can't get up" systems for an elderly customer, and had absolutely no luck getting it to work with a cable phone line.

How about Fire Alarm circuits (and alarms in general).

Somewhere I saw a post from someone who was installing one of those "Help, I've fallen and can't get up" systems for an elderly customer, and had absolutely no luck getting it to work with a cable phone line. [/QUOTE]

I've never dealt with one of those, but all the alarms circuits I've seen in my time sat on conventional copper...not saying that they can't be provisioned differently, but I have yet to see it...

Just learned something new yesterday...never thought about ankle bracelets before:

https://www.philly.com/philly/news/...trikenotaffectinganklebracelets.html?c=r

What did you mean by radio circuits? Just curious

Radio lines (most common analog ones are usually labelled RTNA or RT for *really* old ones) are used extensively by police, fire department, government entities etc.

They come as analog and digital, 2-wire and 4-wire, terminated on anything from RJ11 to a smart jack. Pick your poison, so to speak...

In the old days, one used an Ameritech (I believe) test set to work head-to-head with a tester swapping tone etc. Nowadays, there's a module for JDSU HST-3000 that does the same thing.

While they're essentially a point-to-point circuit, they *can* be a pain to properly provision and test.

Most of the people who knew how to provision these - or test them - have retired, especially with last year's enhanced buyouts. I can't tell you how many times - after spending an hour or more on hold to reach the test bureau - I was told to leave a reach number and that someone would call me when they locate a tester who knows (more likely remembers) how to work on these. Kid you not.

My experience - limited to the boroughs of NYC - is that these things always terminate at weirdest possible locations where no one would find you for days - possibly weeks - if you were to fall down the stairs or suffer a heart attack.

The good news is that most people never get to work on them unless they're employed by LEC or a government entity of some kind.

I've seen RTNA on some wiring before, now I know what it is!
Sounds sort of like a BANA circuit.

And better yet, why you shouldn't touch it...

Just kidding... :toast:

https://www.philly.com/philly/busin...y_to_return_Tuesday.html?cmpid=124488429

Looks like it's over...

Yep.

This is from my local's website:

"The Strike ends Tuesday morning but it’s not over.

We will be going back with a full contract extension!

They will resume bargaining in a week."

https://www.cwa1101.net/

I sure hope that's the case. That's the best news I've heard in a while. Best wishes, guys.

I know the question was directed to Dex but I thought I would chime in anyway.

We have a couple of cable techs who are assigned to circuits. They work with us to build and repair circuits and spans lines to our concentrators. So when a trouble comes in on a circuit, CO/Network and Cable both roll at the same time. Most of the time we are some what working together anyway (isolating a bad pair in a span route or something of that nature). This cuts our MTTR way down. Our objective for MTTR is 3 hrs from the time it is reported. Most of the time our average is close to 3hrs. As Dex mentioned some tickets may take 8hrs but others are restored in less than an hour so we usually come close to meeting our objective.

What Ed said!

In the New England Telephone service area, Verizon will first DPO a Special Services technician to investigate possible problems with NIUs and any other Verizon-owned devices/equipment at the customer prem.

A cable crew DPO isn't scheduled until after the technician has determined that the problem is somewhere in the cables between the C.O. and the customer prem.

The very same holds true for the five boroughs of NYC, which is all I've ever known on the basis of personal experience.

We used to have a similar process but our MTTR average was close to 8hrs at that time. Lost time between dsipatch Q's, waiting on a cable tech if needed, and then the ticket getting passed back and forth between cable and cirucits, was causing excessive time on tickets. So our district manager formed a "Tag & Test" crew. These techs work hand in hand with our CO/Network guys on all installs and repair tickets. This has cut our MTTR average in half. It works really well, we never have to wait on cable if needed. It may cost the company a little extra on tickets where they weren't needed but if sure keeps our customers happy. We are in a somewhat rural area here. Most of our circuits are on copper with many of them on repeater'd routes. I'm sure if would be different in a metropolitan area. As a side note in this area CO/Network handles all the Central Office work, we maint and build all the spans to our concetrators and DSLM's, we install and maintain all our circuits. We also maintain all of concentrators as well. So needless to say we stay pretty busy.

We have a "test & tag" crew but for installs only.

If I'm out of copper spares on a T-1, I call one number.

If I'm out of spares on DS0 or any other special circuit, there's a different number.

Should I face a dead mux, here comes the third number.

What I just said is *for repairs only*. If I have a roadblock of a similar nature on an install, it gets even more complicated.

I'm certain that there's got to be a simpler way, but who am I to say anything...

BTW, a former foreman of mine had moved to Sarasota and was begging for me to come down...I wasn't up for it at the time. He's a CO manager somewhere down there, at least he was the last time we spoke a couple of years ago...he did state that a lot of things were very different in the respect of how the company ran its business...

Ed and Jeff, many thanks for well wishes.

Yep, ajkula66, you got that right: There is a huge difference between the Bell System in New York and GTE in Western Florida. Despite the fact that they are both owned by Verizon Corporation now, a century of different company practices can never be completely merged. That is a big contributing factor to the records clusterfork that exists in this region.

Get plenty of rest this weekend. You guys are going to be busting your asses on Tuesday. Welcome back.

You know, I read practically every posting on this forum, and most of the time I only comment if I really feel the urge.

I nearly sprayed my coffee all over the screen. You are a true comedian. I am having trouble even finding the right keys to press, I am laughing so hard.

I'm certainly glad they have stated they will now bargain seriously. Heck of a note when you have to strike just to get them to do that. Just shows what jerks they are in my opinion.

Too bad they couldn't just agree to extend the contract in the first place instead of spending the money they did to bad mouth the workers.

I was on the conference call this am and sounds like the leaders are hopeful of a just settlement, but they feel it's weeks off.