Each year when I write my year- end report to the membership, I can’t help but think about whether we will be able to make next year better always striving to be positive and optimistic in spite of the odds.

Well, I must believe it will be better because it is my make-up to think so. Having said that, this year had some heart-breaking events mixed with a large dose of intended optimistic events.

In our AT&T Advertising Solutions bargaining unit in California/Nevada, we were hit with a devastating surplus/consolidation which resulted in the loss of 89 jobs and members.

In our AT&T Digital Graphics Advantage bargaining unit in California and Nevada, it was even worse. We have lost 168 jobs through surplus and consolidation.

This is a total loss of 257 jobs, and that was just for calendar year January to December 2010. This does not include the surplus in 2009. This is a reduction of 18% of our total membership. This has resulted in a significant loss of revenue and customers, a decrease in earnings and, most importantly, a loss of people whose skills and contributions cannot be replaced!

The bright spot in 2010 was the new three-year labor agreement which protected our level of medical benefits and pension benefits (including lump sum), significant wage increases, a sales compensation plan with unlimited upside going into an uncertain economy, the elimination of certain work rules, and the commitment to build a more representative sales performance plan which as of this report is not completed.

Our Dex One (formerly RH Donnelley) bargaining unit (Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico) is going through its own crisis. Having just recently (Jan.) emerged from bankruptcy, everything is upside down. No new and true leadership has emerged (even though a new CEO has been named). Most of the Tucson, Arizona, membership has resigned from their jobs because of the local working conditions, and no hope for change is in sight. Yet through it all, our members are hanging strong and supporting the Union’s effort to help breathe new like into what was once a First Class Company (for more, visit Business Rep Karen Gowdy’s report).

Our AT&T Legacy T and Legacy S bargaining unit (California-Nevada-Washington-Oregon) remains fairly stable not through any efforts of AT&T, but because our Technicians are the most skilled and best in the United States.

Our AT&T Advertising Solutions bargaining unit (Yellow Pages.Com) in Nevada and North Carolina is in limbo, but we are in negotiations and are on track to turn that whole operation around with new and better incentives in an effort to re-energize both Call Centers. Bargaining resumes on January 4, 5 and 6, 2011, in Henderson. This bargaining unit covers 28 states and represents a nationwide need to advance AT&T’s internet footprint.

Our new Web Site was a big hit this year with the membership, but it still needs a lot of work. With the suggestions we have received from our members, we plan to make it more visual and more informative in 2011.

This year your Local Union celebrated its 45th anniversary. We were founded and chartered on February 1, 1965. I have been blessed and proud to serve as your Business Manager/Financial Secretary since our beginning when we started with just 35 members. But these 35 individuals were extraordinary. It is they whom we must be thankful to.

It was 35 of us who were loyal, dedicated and committed by legal and proper means to elevate the moral, intellectual and social conditions of our members, their families and dependents in the interest of a higher standard of citizenship.

IBEW LOCAL 1269 Labor agreements for our members have been the standard of our industry for 45 years, and with your continued support, we will continue to strive to stay on top for another half century.

Help us! Volunteer to serve and sacrifice.

On behalf of all our stewards, our Business Representative Karen Gowdy in Denver, your Executive Board and Assistant Business Manager, Casey Lewis, and our San Francisco staff, Joanne Malik and Joyce Salvador, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family from all of us and our families.

HONOR AND STRENGTH.

PETER A. PUSATERI
BM/FS