All,

This has been posted on Local 3250's tape and web site.

Roy

January 19, 2006

Attention Brothers and Sisters,

In Minneapolis, Local 7250 President, Shari Schalwig was suspended by the

Minneapolis AT&T, District Manager for 10 days for engaging in a protected

concerted activity. Every year on January 9th, Local 7250 Members wear black

and distribute flyers commemorating one of their members who passed away.

This is a day that the AT&T managers in Minneapolis would like to forget.

It was on that day in 2002 that AT&T sent home one of our brothers', who was

displaying behavior that was totally inconsistent with his normal demeanor

and it was evident that he needed some medical counseling and assistance.

Instead of AT&T notifying his emergency contact, Health Affairs, EAP, or

even paramedics, they chose to send him home without any assistance or

supervision. AT&T ignored the signs being displayed by a distressed

employee, their plan for handling this situation was "out of sight, out of

mind" and our brother was now sent out into the street without any support

and with his family completely uninformed and unaware of his situation.

Two weeks later, when the company had received no report from him and

without any follow up, the company terminated him and the mismanagement plan

of "out of sight, out of mind" continued. Later on, it was found that our

brother had passed away and the company was then trying to keep his status

as terminated to prevent his life insurance being paid to his survivors.

This was later resolved by Local 7250 President, Shari Schalwig along with

the CWA National, who prevailed at a pre-arbitration settlement with AT&T

agreeing to change our brothers' status from terminated to deceased.

So, on January 9th, when Local 7250 President and mobilization committee

members distributed memorial flyers for one of their members, reminding all

that this must not be repeated in the future, the Minneapolis managers

retaliated by suspending Local 7250 President Shari Schalwig for reminding

them of their mismanagement tactics and lack of compassion for one of their

employee's.

In Minneapolis, managers don't want to be reminded of their involvement in

this affair and it is obvious they are going to unjustly retaliate as they

try and hide from the truth. It is extremely sad that our brother was not

given an opportunity to receive the attention and help he needed, it is also

sad that the company is now punishing a Local President and CWA activist for

trying to prevent a reoccurrence by sharing truthful information with CWA

members.

This type of behavior by AT&T managers is not representative of management

teams across the nation and I am glad to report that the AT&T managers

within Local 3250 have displayed professional and compassionate treatment to

our members. Here in our Local and across the nation, we have been able to

work closely with AT&T managers when dealing with members who have had

difficult and stressful situations face them in their lives.

The behavior that the Minneapolis managers have displayed will not be

tolerated by our CWA Members across the nation and the unjust suspension of

Local 7250 President Shari Schalwig just compounds our outrage. To suspend a

person for a protected concerted activity that was neither disruptive nor

insubordinate is a blatant abuse of power by the Company. Minneapolis should

live up to the Company's code of treating all their employee's ethically and

admit their mistake by apologizing for their behavior to all the Members of

CWA across the nation. Only then will they regain the respect of the rank

and file for their treatment of our deceased brother and his family and

their treatment of the activists at Local 7250.

If you want to obtain additional information regarding this issue you can

call 612-376-6011. I will keep you informed of any updates we receive

regarding this tragedy of events in Minneapolis.

In Unity There Is Strength.

Roy Hegenbart

President/Local 3250