SBC COMMUNICATIONS Union pickets protest contract workers

The phone company is in the middle of cutting 11,000 jobs nationwide.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Waving placards and chanting "We'll be back," more than 100 unionized SBC Communications Inc. workers picketed Monday outside the local-phone giant's offices, charging that SBC continues to hire cheaper contract workers even as it lays off thousands of well-paid company employees.
SBC officials countered that contract workers were also being cut as the company struggled through an economic slowdown that may bring more layoffs in 2003.
The Communications Workers of America said that protesters Monday came from around Texas, as well as neighboring states, and that the rally was not a one-time occasion.
"This is the beginning of a campaign to save our jobs and get rid of those contract employees," said Andy Milburn, a former SBC lineman who is now CWA's district vice president. "If they eliminate those [contract] jobs, they won't have to lay off any of our employees."
Layoff announcement
SBC announced in September that it plans to cut 9,000 positions in the fourth quarter and 2,000 more in the first quarter of 2003. Those come in addition to 10,000 job cuts dating to October 2001.
Company spokesman Larry Solomon said Monday that two-thirds of the fourth-quarter cuts would be union jobs, with the other one-third being management positions.
SBC has said that the cuts will be spread throughout the company's 13-state operating area. SBC is the dominant local-phone service provider in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, California, Nevada, Connecticut and the upper Midwest, including Ohio.
"It's understandable their reaction," Solomon said of the protesters. "We're hoping they can understand the reasons why it is happening."
The company has more than 185,000 employees, according to its Web site. Milburn said by his count SBC employs at least 17,000 contract workers who perform many of the same tasks as unionized workers.
Mike Toomer, a dispatcher from Houston, added: "We don't know how effective [the protest] will be, but it's better than not doing anything at all."
Solomon said that contract positions would also be eliminated during the current round of cuts, though he wouldn't say how many.