We Will Not Bow Down

Did you read the article? It says thousands are believed by union leaders to be in line to be laid off by AT&T. Not actually laid off yet, but believed to be potential lay offs. The article goes on to say that union officials in Indiana have identified 42 workers that will be laid off. FORTY TWO. These are people with attendance problems.

Meanwhile, 200,000 AT&T workers are receiving $1,000 bonuses because of the Trump tax cuts.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

The article identifies DirecTV installation techs are being laid off because of declining demand for that product. This is called basic Econ 101--lowered demand for a product or service leads to cuts in production.

Or do you think a company should continue to employ idle workers whose skills are no longer in demand?

Meanwhile, 200,000 AT&T workers are receiving $1,000 bonuses because of the Trump tax cuts.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

One of the new guys at the unit does satellite television install, and we talked a bit about it last weekend. He said the rate per job, rate for commercial install, and rate for training new guys has consistently been going down for a few years now.

 

A "bonus" is exactly what it says it is--a perk for employees that management feels they deserve above and beyond their usual wages. A $50K job in an area of declining demand is a money losing proposition. Throw in the attendance problems and I can understand why AT&T laid them off. Do you think AT&T should keep these people employed and have them sit around twiddling their thumbs?

Yes, because they don't need an ongoing person employed to do jobs that are temporary. And they don't have to pay FICA or Medicare taxes on their wages.

You're apparently talking about DirecTV Now, a streaming service that works on TV's with streaming hardware devices (Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, etc.) that purchase the AT&T streaming app. There is about 1.2 million subscribers.

AT&T’s DirecTV and U-verse TV businesses were hammered in the third quarter of 2017, while the telco’s over-the-top DirecTV Now service delivered its biggest quarterly increase since launching less than a year ago.


The company reported a record quarterly loss of 385,000 traditional pay-TV subs, which AT&T blamed on increased competition from other pay-TV operators and over-the-top services, as well as implementing stricter credit standards and “hurricane disruptions.” That was partially offset by 296,000 net adds for the DirecTV Now service.

AT&T Loses Record 385,000 Traditional Pay-TV Subscribers in Q3, Posts Gains for DirecTV Now

No kidding. That's because the end users can connect to DirecTV Now with no assistance from AT&T install technicians.