From: Phillip.Dampier@f228.n260.z1.fidonet.org (Phillip Dampier)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: GTE Workers Send Message to Annual Meeting
Date: 15 Apr 92 19:58:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: eecs.telecom12.320.2
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 320, Message 2 of 7

GTE WORKERS SEND JOB SECURITY MESSAGE TO COMPANY'S ANNUAL MEETING

WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 15 -- Thousands of GTE employees and family
members sent a message to the company's annual meeting today,
delivered in the form of proxy shares brought by Communications
Workers of America Vice President T.O. Moses, who addressed the
meeting on their behalf.

Moses spoke to the contradictions between GTE's stated desire to
provide quality service and their "abysmal" treatment of employees,
the people who must provide that service to the customers:

    "Quality employers do not tell their employees in one
     breath that 'we are all in this boat together' while
     granting its top 41 officers golden parachutes for a
     'change in control' situation, then in the next breath
     treat the employees like disposable diapers to be
     tossed aside after being used."

    "Quality employers do not replace a workforce that is
     qualified, dedicated, active, loyal, and responsive
     with a host of gypsy outside vendors who hold no
     commitment or loyalty to the company, the customer,
     or the community where they are replacing regular
     employees."

    "A quality employer does not deplete the tax base of a
     community by transferring jobs en masse to other
     locations without considering and working for alternative
     solutions to maintain a workforce in those communities."

    "A quality employer in one breath does not proclaim its
     employees are the company's most valued asset, that they
     value their input, then in the next breath announce a
     Process Re-Engineering Strategy that excludes the
     employee body and its representatives from participating
     in meaningful decisions that will not only impact the
     company's future, but theirs as well."

Negotiations for a new three-year contract with GTE Southwest began on
Tuesday, March 31, 1992 in Irving, Texas, and talks with GTE
Iowa-Nebraska begin later this month.  These are the first of several
rounds of negotiations to be held in 1992 and 1993 with GTE, for new
contracts covering a total of about 30,000 union represented workers
nationwide.

GTE, the largest U.S. telephone holding company, is a financially
strong, growing, successful corporation.  In 1991, GTE saw significant
increases in profits, revenues, return to shareholders, productivity,
and acquired new assets.  GTE paid $945 million for a share of the
Venezuelan phone company in 1991, and consumated a $6.2 billion dollar
merger with Contel. Profitability per employee is estimated to exceed
$35,000 per worker in 1991.

GTE's telephone operations are the key to the company's success,
providing an overwhelming share (85 percent) of their profits.

"Our members, whose hard work has made millions for GTE, deserve a
fair contract that protects their standard of living and insures
employment security now and in the future," Moses stated.

CWA represents over 600,000 workers in telecommunications, printing,
publishing, media, health care, and the public sector in the United
States and Canada.


For more information, contact:

Jeff Miller
Gaye Williams Mack
Communications Workers of America
(202) 434-1172

Ben Turn
(214) 637-0173