I’ve been doing an internship at AT&T at&t Research for the last few weeks. It’s always fun to see how industrial research works, in particular the idiosyncrasies involved with working as part of a giant corporation.
As an employee of at&t Research, I am technically considered one of at&t’s management employee (finally I get some well deserved recognition). Unfortunately, at at&t, this essentially means that I am not part of the union.
Normally my management status would have no impact, but this spring at&t’s unionized employees are up to renew their contract, and there is the chance of a strike. A strike at at&t would be a big deal — they are responsible for more than just a cell phone company. They run a large part of the networks that handle both telephone calls and the internet backbone, plus they provide TV service.
Fortunately, there is no reason to worry, because at&t’s managers (aka scabs) are being trained to take over all of those jobs in case of a strike. So if a strike occurs, you could have a computer science PhD digging ditches for the cable going to your house. While that would probably just be a minor inconvenience (we aren’t known for our hole digging prowess), it’s a little scary to put the control of nationwide networks in the hands of these folks who “in theory” know how they should all work. at&t’s goal is clearly to show the union that the managers are a credible threat, but it seems to me that the threat is really in the amount of damage they would do if they were actually let loose on that infrastructure.
I am only at at&t until December, and the potential strike is not until next spring, but apparently that is not sufficient excuse to get myself out of “strike duty”, and I was assigned a training session to learn how to become an air pressure technician at a center in Texas in case the worst should happen. Fortunately, I’ve managed to weasel my way out of the assignment, so I will not be forced to learn a practical skill…. phew! Less lucky are the rest of the research employees here who get to spend many hours completing the training sessions for their new jobs, while being informed that their own jobs aren’t actually important for the company.
As you consider how much money at&t must be wasting by running training courses and sending people and supplies around for this charade, I leave you to gaze upon the ten pound stack of documents I received when I started my internship, most of them detailing the benefits plans which I am not eligible for.
