Eric Rabe Quotes (22 Quotes)

Anybody in the industry ... in the country ... has to be concerned about the power that it puts in ATT's hands,

When you get to a point where you think people are ready to go home... that sometimes is helpful to have a deadline to get people focused, ... I think people are serious about getting a contract and getting things back the way they should be for customers. I think the union people are just as anxious to do that as we are.

Intense negotiations have continued late last evening, then resumed again at 930 a.m., ... The current talks are intense.

The status of the bargaining is that we are continuing to talk. We continue to frankly plug through some of the more difficult issues that confront us. It's become sort of an intense, exhausting sort of a process. We're working through the issues one at a time.

We will certainly continue to negotiate with anybody who's here. We have no interest in walking away from talks.

I honestly believe we are in a situation where this could come together in a matter of hours if people agree that it's time to do that, but we haven't been able to get that kind of an agreement from the unions. Frankly, we think we're there. Obviously there's not complete agreement on this.

Now the union has raised the issue of workplace stress, and we're working on a solution to that too, ... The work done in call centers we all agree is tough and the people that do this work face a hard job. The question is, how can we address issue of job stress and still provide customers with the service they want and that they deserve

I believe both unions and certainly management bargainers are committed to resolving the issues and getting a contract, ... But it remains impossible to predict when a settlement will actually be reached.

We continue to negotiate, and we continue to be hopeful. However, the negotiating process is a two-way street and the unions have not been willing to approve a contract that would allow the company to remain competitive.

We're looking at a variety of ways to address the demands of the marketplace. We're also very conscious of program contracts.

But getting our accurate position out there on this issue is something we've had to work hard to achieve, ... A sizeable amount of inaccurate, or even blatantly biased, information makes its way to the web, and the more sensational stories - true or not - tend to get amplified by repetition.

We believe we reached a good general framework for obtaining a contract, but right now we're down to the wire. I'm still optimistic that we'll get it done in a few days but I'm not sure we'll get it done today.

We're in a position that could results in a new contract, and the end of the strike and getting people back to work.

I'm sure there have been cases of that and I'm sure it will get worse tomorrow as normal business volumes build up.

We think their behavior is outrageous for normal business commerce. Essentially they have refused to negotiate with us.

We are asking each business unit to manage their work flow, which means managers' jobs have been eliminated, not the union positions, and we have eliminated contract work,

We're not engaged in any improper attempt . . . to get proprietary information.

In addition, wage increases of between 3 percent and 4 percent have largely been agreed upon, though agreement on those issues could change in response to concessions on other concerns. We have seen some positive movement on some of the issues, but this is a situation with a lot of moving parts, ... Those issues could change as we move to other issues.

We have been talking with the unions since late yesterday afternoon, ... non-stop intense talks with all sides fully engaged. It remains impossible not predict when these talks will end in a contract and get people back to their jobs.

It's not competition yet, but . . . it may turn out to be yet another way in which people are competing with us.

It's our fervent hope that we will be able to negotiate that contract and get it over as quickly as possible. We continue to believe that we've made progress and that the end of this negotiation process continues to be within reach. We believe we can reach an agreement quickly and get workers back on the job. We want this strike to be over.

When we started making plans to start the service, we didn't know for sure what date the FCC would give us permission to start, so we built in a couple of extra days. We're going to stick to schedule. We don't think ATT has a very good case, and we don't expect them to get a stay.