I am Jack's anger gradually dulling to resignation.

We did not get any addendum to give SC's any wage increase. It was a farce. CWA's position is that SC's are paid comparably to other sales consultants in the telecom industry, and they did not want to waste their time and efforts fighting to get us raises like they fought for all the other groups.

We SC's will all likely vote no on the contract proposal, most of the other CWA members (techs, assignments, care, typists, etc.) will all likely vote yes, and the contract will likely pass. What do they care about the concept of union? They got their raises. We SC's are in the minority, and it seems the CWA 'union' has shown their true colors: they've screwed us over and sold us out.

CWA's position also is that we receive a bonus structure, so our pay is partially dependent on ourselves. My position is that CWA can fuck themselves, because everyone can participate in the YOU CAN referral program, and that creates a bonus structure for everyone in the company.

Furthermore, every referral made to YOU CAN goes to management workers, therefore taking sales oppportunities away from SC's who are supposedly depending on those sales opportunities as part of our paychecks.

The company communicates that SC's are not doing the best job we can by granting raises to every group but us. The CWA communicates that we are second-class dues-paying members by not fighting for us along with every other group. The whole affair disappoints and disgusts me.

I will stop posting to this blog because I am disheartened and resigned that we cannot fight not only the company, but our own union. I plan to tear up my union card and drop it on my head steward's desk the day after the new contract is ratified.

I will also quit my union leadership position. I truly enjoy the difference I make, but I cannot keep my self respect if I continue standing by an organization that stabbed me in the back. I'll take my chances with management; at least I know where they stand.

The CWA is so retarded that they apparently cannot even do the math:

• The raises more than pay for the increased health premiums CWA caved on.
• CWA annual dues more than pay for those increased health premiums.
• Therefore, SC's will likely quit the union to recoup their losses on the health premiums.

I considered deleting this blog entirely, but I will leave it up to warn the world about the pile of lying, spineless bullshit that the CWA truly is.

Change or die, CWA. You are on the downhill slope now.

Call for Sales Consultants to show up en masse at union meetings.

We need cities with sales centers to encourage all sales consutants to show up to this month's union meeting. Some are meeting this week, most are next week. The reason why is to demonstrate that we outnumber techs and other CWA members in those cities with call centers. We also need to demonstrate that if we are screwed out of our pay raise that we can cause problems with our overwhelming numbers.

If you have never or never will go to any union meetings, this month is the time!

BTW, there is conflicting information coming from the union and from management about the SC pay raise screwover. Some management is saying CWA never asked for SC's to get the raises, CWA is saying they did ask for the raises. We need to find out the truth here, because the truth can determine our next actions with regards to the CWA.

A comment made in the MSN "" Employee Disconnected board in regards to the SC initiatives was that we need to look at the larger picture and not be selfish about our own pay raises. We respond that the larger picture shows CWA is not a true 'union' if they hang out one group to dry. The larger picture will show that one group can cause major problems for the CWA if we are left out of the pay raise.

We need an addendum to extend the same raises to SC's or we need to vote this contract down.

Please please please comment and mention this source to your co-workers.

We have a copy of the LOA expiring in December 2005 and are considering posting it here for informational purposes.

This is the initial story from CWA about the SC sales consultants getting screwed out of a pay raise (it still sounds like they pussed out):

August 19, 2005

TO:	All CWA Locals with Members in Qwest
FROM:	CWA Bargaining Committee
SUBJECT:	Consumer / Small Business Group Sales Consultants

We have been receiving a number of calls and emails regarding the absence of a wage increase for the Sales Consultants.

The wage increase for Sales Consultants was tied to our ability to extend the December 17, 2004 letter of agreement dealing with existing Call Centers. Our demand to extend this letter remained on the table until the end of negotiations. When we were unable to extend the letter, we believed that a wage increase would likely only speed up the closings. The committee believed that continued employment was preferable to a wage increase.

LeRoy Christensen

Reed Roberts

Suzie Miller

Kathy Reck

Scott Hogue

Malachy Sreenan

We should try our CWA organizational procedures first, try to appeal to our stewards to fight for us in sales call centers. Comments are critical if you have information to help all sales center employees.

If this does not work, many emotional reactions are to slash and burn our way out. We can line up (in every center and at a predetermined date/time) at the desk of the highest-ranking CWA member's desk and tear up our union cards and leave on their desk. We could pool $20-50 each to hire lawyers (how many sales consultants? 2-3,000?) and sue our way out of our contracts. There are many other ideas brewing in the SC membership, but those will come out at appropriate times.

Yes, our company ultimately is the evil corporation that wanted far more horrible things than getting screwed out of raises. However, our beef is not with them, it is with our CWA union that left us out in the cold without raises. How could they sell us out when we were prepared to strike with them?

This source for sales consultants will likely not last longer than one or two months from inception. That's all the time we could possibly have to vote against ratifying the new agreement, and potential renegotiations with our corporate overlords. Good luck, the power is in our hands to make change that will directly affect all of us bearing the title of SC.

• SC's pay $525 annual union dues (the same proportion as everyone else).
• SC's must now pay $3-400 annually for health costs (like everyone else).
• Everyone else covered under CWA contract (except with job title SC) got a 7.5% raise
• CWA released contract details 1 day after last day to quit for year.
• Why is sales getting screwed if we bring in the cash that gives all those other CWA members work?
• Why are we getting screwed?

• SC's get paid in proportion to their work, just the same as every other department.
• SC's are easily the majority revenue center for the company.

SC

We are a newly formed SC faction of the CWA at a general major telecom. We just got screwed us over by our own CWA union representation. It occurred in the latest contract agreement, and sales consultants hold a small minority of the total 25,000 CWA union members. It's not likely we can do anything about voting against ratifying the contract. Worse, the union finally released the contract details the day after the final day of CWA's annual opt-out window.

Not only did the CWA leave out SC's in any raises, but we have to pay the $3-400 annual health costs and we have to pay $525 more in union dues before we get a chance to quit CWA.

So are we SC's going to just take this or are we going to fight our union? Nobody is going to fight for us besides ourselves. SC's unite! (yes it's corny but our situation is serious)

This source for sales consultants will likely not last longer than one or two months from inception. That's all the time we could possibly have to vote against ratifying the new agreement, and potential renegotiations with our corporate overlords. Good luck, the power is in our hands to make change that will directly affect all of us bearing the title of SC.