Im so glad that Im in a third party vendor. If we get cut from Cingular we'll be working for FedEx, Maybeline, etc. etc. 😁

same with us but what i find really strange is that when i started here a year and a half ago we were strickly TDMA and NST in the last few months we have picked up GSM and Prepaid

Gotta love the clients.
We're slowly changing our center and exisiting repts to new cingular and all newhires are strictly Cingular as well. But there is a large amount of old AWS reps, too.
I havent been here too long, but we used to be CSA [GSM], GSM Migrations, Online Migrations [years ago], Dealer migrations and care. Wee!

Yeah, the nice thing about being outsourced is if we get sacked by Cingular, we can always find a new client.

And how! 😁

just hope the new client is not bertha's discount brothel and massage services 😈

I hopin the new client is microsoft. Bring on the Xbox cust service!

HELL YEAH!!! WOOOOOOOO, free games or discounted and OH YEAH!!!

Nice to see another Welland rep in the Forum. I'll take FedEx if we drop or Cingular drops us.

I am looking for a change.. Welland always does what every other centre doesn't. We catch alot of the flack, and I am getting sick of it... 🤣

good question I am so glad you ask. the benefits are guaranteed wage increases every six months. The other benefit is a place you can go to that can handle disputes with management. Being part of a strong union is a good thing but our union has been weakened by the buyout of AT&T wireless. If we are going to have a union we need to have at least 90% membership or else their is no point to a union. Because there are so many outsourced and non union reps now that it has destroyed us union reps.

simplymarcus said:
good question I am so glad you ask. the benefits are guaranteed wage increases every six months. The other benefit is a place you can go to that can handle disputes with management. Being part of a strong union is a good thing but our union has been weakened by the buyout of AT&T wireless. If we are going to have a union we need to have at least 90% membership or else their is no point to a union. Because there are so many outsourced and non union reps now that it has destroyed us union reps.

So the 2 benifits are

1) Raise every 6 months.
2) A 2nd lvl of escalation for problems with managment.


Although I am outsourced....
1) We get a raise every 1000hrs (works out to 6 months...
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you make some interesting points. But at Cingular management has been piss poor at handling issues for years. The union is here at Cingular because we hate our management point blank. They have proven to be out of touch and slow to react. Maybe if I did not think my management was full of shi** I would feel like i do not need a union. If I felt Cingular wireless would deal with me fairly I would vote out the union tomorrow.

A lot of us feel that legacy orange managers "micro-manage" and are worried more about meticulous details with performance and meeting bottom lines as opposed to the reps themselves...is this true simplymarcus?

Yes it is true. The area manager that is over my supervisor knows all of my stats. Even the director of the call center knows I never miss my Availibility or quality.

Ya I get what your saying. I used to have a union job and management was crappy to say the least.


But its a double edge sword. I'm 100% sure that management wouldn't of been so bad (hell they would of been great or at least decent) if it wasn't for the Union. Union created alot of problems and frustration for the management with the fact that management couldn't do much to improve quality of work since they couldn't fire the people that needed to be fired.

Hell we had one guy working there who wouldn't do any work (Produce in Grocery store BTW) unless the Sup was in sight of him. The guy did a half ass job. Always late. No call no shows all the time. Damaged product. Harrassed co-workers. Harrassed customers. Everytime m...
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I don't buy that at all. I think the reason w he kept his job is poor management. They obviously did not document each complaint and each issue. If they would have he would have been gone and there would have been nothing the union could do. A union does not guarantee your job and they are supposed to fight for better working conditions. Sounds like Human Resources and managers collectively failed to handle the situation. All call centers run by companies trying to make money are micro-managed and that will never change. Leaving for more money is understandable but leaving due to having to make stats is stupid. You will have to do that wherever you go.

Theres making stats.... and then theres making stats.

I know that all call centers have stats to meet but ATTWS was NEVER like Cingular as far as stats go. Sure my overall stats affect my performance report with ATTWS but they never went so far as to do Daily performance reports like Par.


As far as my story about my experiance with unions... Its not crap and it wasn't management dropping the ball. Everytime they tried to fire someone the Union would always stop them some way. Our Union played the Strike card every chance they got. Because management would never call them on it because they could not afford another strike. BTW our Union had 100% membership. Hell I wasn't even given a choice. IF I wanted the job I had to joi...
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I did not mean that your story is bogus. I was saying that HR and management did not due their jobs. The company could have been sued because employees were being harassed. ATTWS also went out of business because of upper-management being out of touch and making stupid decisions. I am not saying that your experience is bogus I am just saying these are run this way for a reason. Every company in this crazy economy is going to run a tight ship.

What are the benefits? aside from wage increases you actually get a voice in your workplace during contract negotiations. AT&T, Bellsouth,Sbc etc all are unionized and they get paid a whole heck of a lot more, the companies didn't just give them the raises they had to fight and bargain with the companies.
Grievance procedures, I know of many many many reps who got entries in their file for not making sales objectives,some attendance issues, pay being late, vacation and earned time to just name a few all of which can lead to termination that have been removed due to union action. sometimes jobs even being given back to fired employees with back pay in some instances. Greivances against managment including harrassment, negative "coaching" le...
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At my center i have seen it happen several times, people who try to get into tech section especially, half the time the people who get the positions are the people who always called tech in past, its just that they have seniority, all the they have to do is show they have a little proficiency and if they have the years they get it

not here

When you say pro-moted do you mean in management? B/C management isn't union, so seniority doesn't matter, its just when you are trying to transfer to spec ops, like tech, OOP, etc.

For management if you have 9 months as a CSR you can apply for management. Your appraisal matters and your job performance matters even more than time in title. If you want to go to OOP or tech support you have to be a CSR2 a job title that has been closed for 4 years.

Do you work at an Orange center, at ours, for those positions (tech, OOP) you just have to have been an employee at least 1 year and usually not be on a step of discipline.

Yes I work in an orange center. the offical union qualifictations for the CSR2 position are the same as in your center. But Cingular has keep the position closed for years. you must be a CSR2 to be in tech support or OOP.

Marcus, can you please get a hold of me, if its through revan or whatever I don't care but I wanted to ask you a couple questions, not in the forums.

You can PM me and I will answer any questions.

The guy I used to sit next to just moved to tech, he was a CSE rep, not CSR2, and he got a tech position, so I think it might vary by location

Yes it does vary by location.