Article 43

 

Sunday, September 05, 2004

Welcome

Welcome to article43.com - a memorial to the layed off workers of (PRE SBC MERGER) AT&T, and the disappearing MIDDLE CLASS citizens of America.  It is NOT endorsed or affiliated with AT&T or the CWA in any way.

This sticky post was written the day we appeared on the internet in 2004, and updated in 2023.

Besides INFORMATION, resources and opinion for former AT&T workers DEALING WITH the EFFECTS OF LAYOFF and looking for meaningful employment, a lot of articles here are meant to bring into awareness the LARGER PICTURE of corporate dominance of the UNITED STATES’ political and economic policies which brazenly DISREGARDS, disrespects and EXPLOITS worker, citizen and HUMAN RIGHTS under masks like FREE TRADE and the PATRIOT ACT - resulting in a return to a society of very rich and very poor dominated by a few very rich and powerful - whose voices are anything but - for the people. If left UNCHALLENGED, the self-serving interests of those in control may result in the end of DEMOCRACY, the end of the middle class, irreversible ENVIRONMENTAL damage to the planet, and widespread global poverty brought on by exploitation and supression of the voices of common people EVERYWHERE, while the United States turns into a REINCARNATION of the ROMAN EMPIRE.  Author Thom Hartmann shares some history and outlines some basic steps to return our country to “The People” in his two articles TEN STEPS TO RETURN TO DEMOCRACY and SAVING THE MIDDLE CLASS. I support CERNIG’S idea for a new POLITICAL MOVEMENT - if not a revolution to cleanse our country of the filth ruling it - as we EVOLVE into a GLOBAL community - assuming we learn the THE LESSONS OF OUR TIME and don’t DESTROY CIVILIZATION first.

Everything here can be viewed anonymously. Inserting or commenting on articles requires a user account. Requests to the new user registration page are closed. All new signups I get seem to be from COMMENT SPAMMERS and their ilk, so if you want to contribute, contact me directly.

There’s no third-party scripts here like privacy-eroding WEB COUNTERS, hidden datamining widgets like Pay-Pal donation boxes, or AMAZON DOT COM tracking stuff.  The two RSS feeds are pulled by the server, and have no relation to anything you may be doing here.  Standard Apache WEB LOGS of info like IP, and pages visited are rotated every few days, and used internally to check the web server’s performance.  Logs of suspicious activity may be shared with law enforcement, or other ISPs, to deal with troublemakers.  Nothing here is for sale, and donations are not solicited.

If you get an email that claims to be from somebody here that’s anything but a request to post your article, or report suspicious activity (like logs sent to an ISP) - it’s SPAM.  Please let me know.  Someone may have broken in and made a SPAM RUN, and there’s no way to stop anyone from FORGING ANYONE ELSE’S EMAIL ADDRESS in a “from” or “reply-to” mail header.  For those of us whose email addresses are fraudulently used, the best we can do is filter out NDR REPORTS.

Per U.S.C. COPYRIGHT LAW - TITLE 17, SECTION 107, this not-for-profit site may reproduce copyrighted material not specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such articles will either have a web link to the source, home page, and/or show credit to the author.  If yours is here and you have a problem with that, send me an EMAIL, and I’ll take it off. Stuff I wrote carries a CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE permitting non-commercial sharing. In addition, this site’s owner does not opt-in to insertion and injecting data of any kind - especially advertisements - into ours by any person or entity.  Should you see a commercial ad that looks like it’s from here, please let me know by sending a tcpdump and/or screenshot in an EMAIL, then READ UP about how the PARTNERING OF INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS and companies like NEBUAD are DESTROYING INTERNET PRIVACY

Information on the Pension Class Action Lawsuit against AT&T is HERE.  More pension-related articles are HERE.

Click HERE to learn a little about Article 43 and why I loathe the CWA.
Click HERE or HERE to learn what the CWA did when given a chance to do the right thing.
Click HERE for a glimpse of undemocratic and hypocritical CWA practices.
Click HERE for an article on Corporate Unionism.
Click HERE for an article of AFL-CIO’s undemocratic history.

If you’re looking for telco nostalgia, you won’t find it here, except for a little FLASH VIDEO I found on the internet wrapped as an executable so you can just run it.  Check out the TELECOM ARCHIVE, BELL SYSTEM MEMORIAL, and TELEPHONE TRIBUTE websites instead.

This site can disappear anytime if I run out of money to pay for luxuries like food, health care, or internet service.

Discernment of truth is left to the reader - whose encouraged to seek as much information as possible, from as many different sources as possible - and pass them through his/her own filters - before believing anything.

...the Devil is just one man with a plan, but evil, true evil, is a collaboration of men…
- Fox Mulder, X Files

No matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as the truth.
- John F. Kennedy

Today my country, your country and the Earth face a corporate holocaust against human and Earthly rights. I call their efforts a holocaust because when giant corporations wield human rights backed by constitutions and the law (and therefore enforced by police, the courts, and armed forces) and sanctioned by cultural norms, the rights of people, other species and the Earth are annihilated.
- Richard L. Grossman

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
- Albert Einstein

He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust.
- Aquinas

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
- Bishop Desmond Tutu

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
- Martin Luther King Jr

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
- Benjamin Franklin

If we do not hang together, we will surely hang separately.
- Benjamin Franklin

We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war.
- Albert Einstein

Solidarity has always been key to political and economic advance by working families, and it is key to mastering the politics of globalization.
- Thomas Palley

As we head into the next depression (which happens every 10 years or so), fueled by selfish corporate greed, and a corrupt, SOCIOPATHIC, business-loving, US government, MIKE WHITNEY wrote a solution in 2007 that makes a lot of sense to me:

The impending credit crisis can’t be avoided, but it could be mitigated by taking radical steps to soften the blow. Emergency changes to the federal tax code could put more money in the hands of maxed-out consumers and keep the economy sputtering along while efforts are made to curtail the ruinous trade deficit. We should eliminate the Social Security tax for any couple making under $60, 000 per year and restore the 1953 tax-brackets for Americans highest earners so that the upper 1%-- who have benefited the most from the years of prosperity---will be required to pay 93% of all earnings above the first $1 million income. At the same time, corporate profits should be taxed at a flat 35%, while capital gains should be locked in at 35%. No loopholes. No exceptions.

Congress should initiate a program of incentives for reopening American factories and provide generous sufbsidies to rebuild US manufacturing. The emphasis should be on reestablishing a competitive market for US exports while developing the new technologies which will address the imminent problems of environmental degradation, global warming, peak oil, overpopulation, resource scarcity, disease and food production. Off-shoring of American jobs should be penalized by tariffs levied against the offending industries.

The oil and natural gas industries should be nationalized with the profits earmarked for vocational training, free college tuition, universal health care and improvements to then nations infrastructure.

Posted by Admin on 09/05/04 •

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Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Life after AT&T

If you’re looking for Job hunt links, go HERE instead.

Got a story to share regarding your life after AT&T?
Post a comment below....

Posted by Elvis on 09/14/04 •
Section General Reading
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Saturday, September 11, 2004

Job Hunt

Career Pages

Telecom Companies
Alltel
BellSouth
Lucent
Verizon
AT&T-SBC
Sprint
US LEC
Nextel
Cingular
Avaya

Job Boards
Careerbuilder
Monster.com
Top Entry Level Employers
Thingamajob.com
Jumbo Classifieds

Recruiters
Adea Solutions
Atos Origin
Robert Half Technology
TEK Systems
The Reserves Network

Government Contractors
GSA Top 50 Contractors (pdf)
Harris Corporation
SAIC

Other Vendors to Watch
Tumbleweed Communications
Troux Technologies

Misc
Winning at Networking
Job Seeker News

Posted by Elvis on 09/11/04 •
Section Job Hunt
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Friday, September 10, 2004

Effects of Corporate Downsizing

As they pass their 40’s, being re-employed becomes harder.  Van Buren’s (1996, p. 50) research shows that being fired is likely to mean the loss not only of upward career movement, but also of economic stability and self-respect. They feel like they are being sacrificed, not because their corporations were in serious economic trouble, but rather because the profits being made were not high enough.

<snip>

Trust is one of the most valuable yet brittle assets in any enterprise. Over the long term, it’s far better for companies to downsize in a humane way.

“Corporations should remember that they are artificial creatures chartered by society. As such, they are subject to society’s values-and society’s approval can be withdrawn at any time” (Van Buren III, 1996, p. 50).  All the more reason to do it humanely.

<snip>

A key factor for employees who lose their jobs is often an organization’s severance package. Being displaced from a company is a devastating experience. Studies have shown that a generous severance package sends out a message to the employee kept on, that the company does care and provides for displaced workers. As Misha, et, al (1998) sees it, survivors will judge a company’s future interactions with them on how fairly it treats those laid off.

Developing a humane and dignified outcome for these displaced workers should be one of a company’s primary goals for each displaced individual within the organization. A way to increase the morale of each displaced worker within the organization is to have them gain control of their lives. 

Nothing saps a person more than a feeling of “lost control” in obtaining a job. “Workers’ control stabilizes employment, and, hence reduced the impact of an exogenous shock which reduces employment” (Doucouliagos, 1997, p. 175). Turnley and Feldman (1998, p. 82) look at how a company’s unfair actions cause low morale and a decrease in productivity. “In the case of organizations undergoing downsizing and reorganization, respondents’ comments highlight the negative reactions to perceived unfair layoff procedures”.

Using an organization’s position to retrain, having an out placement service, and having financial counseling for the displaced employees should be a primary concern for an organization in the middle of downsizing.

Leana, Feldman and Tan (1997) hold a contrary view of severance packages to displaced workers. In their research of laid off workers, they found that corporate assistance programs may have some unintended consequences for coping behaviors. A severance package given to individuals in a downsizing is meant to lessen the blow of being without a job. With this severance package, displaced workers should have time to look for a new position. These authors note, however, that substantial severance pay reduces the respondents’ sense of urgency to look for a job. On the other hand, other studies cites have shown that even after a displaced employee finds a new position, the pay is substantially less than what they were making in their prior position. Quite often these individuals who do find a new position are quite often under immense economic and social pressure to accept any job even if the wages are substantially lower than what they were making.

Employers know that these individuals are in dire need and will often offer less to them because of their situation. “The unemployed could be particularly vulnerable to distinct hiring discriminatory practices, as the reward for their human capital will depend on the subjective and discretionary evaluation made by the prospective employer who is typically, in a superior bargaining position” (Mavromaras & Rudolph, 1997, p. 814).

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Posted by Elvis on 09/10/04 •
Section Dealing with Layoff
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Coping With Unemployment

On a daily basis you check your email to see if your sixteen different job search agents have returned that dream job. You send your resume to at least five positions a day. Heck, you even look in the Sunday newspaper! The media tells us that the economic recovery has begun. Companies are hiring. People are optimistic. Yet you are still unemployed. 

If you’re out of work, particularly if you’ve been looking for a job for quite some time, it’s easy to get discouraged. After all we define ourselves so much by what we do. How many minutes after you meet someone for the first time, do you ask him or her, “so what do you do for a living?”

Even those that support you, family and friends, can unintentionally create problems. How many times as a job seeker have you heard, “so, have you found anything yet?” If you’ve been unemployed a while, it’s easy to take that the wrong way. can help you cope with being unemployed and set the stage for job search success.

1. Budget - Now that may sound fairly obvious, but you need to understand what your expenses are and how you can control them. Do you really need two ISP’s? Can you really watch all those channels on premium cable? Or how about that daily double decaf soy Latte down at Starbucks? You need to prioritize where you are spending your money.

There are certain expenses you may not be able to control such as rent or a house note. But for expenses like credit card debt, examine your statement to see if you ever automatically signed up for a payment protection plan. Chances are your credit card company may have enrolled you, if your balance has been over a certain amount. Take advantage of that, many of those plans will allow you to suspend payments temporarily.

The key to a budget is to put it on paper. Whether you create an Excel spreadsheet or scribble it on a note pad, having something that you can look at and change is a great help in developing a budget that will last.

2 .Routine - What does being employed really do for us? Besides a paycheck, it gives us a schedule. Being unemployed should not be different. You should stick to the same pattern you had when you were working. Resist the nightly temptation to watch Leno and get plenty of sleep instead. 

During the week, actually set your alarm clock. Pick a time to get up and get ready as if you were going to work. Does that mean you need to put on business professional clothes? Not necessarily, but hey, if it helps keep you focused then why not.

Being ready for work every day means that you can respond to an interview request quickly. Also, by keeping a schedule, you will have an easier time of transitioning back to the work world. And you won’t scare your new co-workers by looking like a sleep-deprived zombie your first week on the job.

3. Exercise - If you’ve been unemployed for any length of time, you’ve probably become use to wearing your sweats or some other sort of casual clothes. Funny, when you go to that interview, your suit feels a little tight. Although you wish you could blame your dry cleaner for shrinking your best interview suit, you know you can’t.

You don’t have to join a gym. You can exercise by taking a walk in a nearby park or dusting off that old Richard Simmons tape. In addition to exercise, watching what you eat can help as well.

Regular exercise and consistently eating right can help make sure that interview suit fits a little better. But it’s the added bonus of staying healthy during a stressful period in your life that is most important. 

4. Keep informed - Watching the latest Jerry Springer or keeping up with All My Children is not something that will keep you up to date on current events. Staying current on what’s happening in the real world is what keeps you connected. 

Whether you read the paper, surf the Internet, or frequent your local library, challenge yourself to learn about what is going on in the bigger picture. At the very least make sure you keep current on business trends. Being unemployed means that you need to be keenly aware of what factors are affecting the marketplace, especially in your industry.

Doing research can give you ideas on what industries are growing and what companies are hiring. And you will also be able to engage in the “small talk” that often precedes an interview. Whether it’s the recent landing on Mars or discussing the 11 Oscar Nominations that Return of the King received, chitchat like that can help ease the tension when you’re meeting a recruiter or hiring manager.

5. Volunteer -­ When you’re working, you always say to yourself, “I think this organization or cause is worthwhile and I should really help out.” Perhaps while you were working you helped with your money, now you can help with your time.

Becoming a volunteer should be a commitment that will last beyond your unemployment. So examine it seriously, before you decide to do it. Most organizations that rely on volunteer help will welcome anyone, no matter how much time he or she donates. But again, explore carefully how you can contribute during your unemployment and then what you can do after you start to work again.

Besides being a wonderful networking opportunity, it is great to have that sense of accomplishment. Try this site to help find that right volunteer opportunity: volunteermatch.org

6. Support Groups - No matter how well meaning your wife, husband, parents, in-laws, or friends are, if they aren’t unemployed, they will find it hard to understand what it’s like to be out of work. That’s not to suggest that their support is not needed or welcomed, but sometimes you need to seek out others who are also unemployed.

This idea may seem overly dramatic and some folks may not need it and that’s okay. For those that do just remember to start simple. If there were other people that were laid off from your company, call them first. Check in on them. Find out how they’re doing. If you think it would be worthwhile to get together, then do it.

Some people you encounter will be negative, frustrated by their lack of success in finding work, they will likely try and infect you with their bad attitude.

The long-term value outweighs the risk since this can be another networking opportunity. After all a job that might not be a fit for them, may be for you and vice-a-versa. And it is reassuring to know that there’s another person or group of people going through what you’re going through.

7. Entertainment - Yes that’s right, entertainment! You need to find a way to have fun. Whether it͢s reading a book, playing a game, or watching TV, you need to work at making sure that some form of entertainment is part of your week.

You need to figure out a way to include entertainment in your budget. Even if it means clipping coupons, going to Happy Hour and eating bar appetizers at half-price, or waiting till that first-run movie hits the cheap theaters, you need give yourself permission to relax and enjoy life.

Looking for work is a full-time job. Like any job, you need to have a break. So don’t short change yourself and feel guilty about goofing off every once in a while.

Whether it’s managing your budget or planning something fun, the goal is to keep you focused. Without that focus it is easy to get discouraged. The first thing that you lose when that happens is your attitude.

The bottom line in keeping a positive attitude while you’re unemployed is to remember the bigger picture. People get interviews because their skills match the job requirements. People get jobs because they have great attitudes.

The author, Wayne Rainey, is human resources professional with 9 plus years of diverse experience in both corporate recruiting and the temporary staffing industry. Wayne can be reached via email at and welcomes any questions from fellow job seekers who may want a recruiter’s perspective.

---

Changing Your View Changes Everything!

job-hunt.org

Its like that when you lose your job, too. When I was fired from my first professional job, I thought my future had collapsed. That woe-is-me perspective blocked my ability to see that what happened had opened, not closed, opportunities. In time, my view broadened, and my understanding emerged.

Not only did I come to realize I disliked the job and wasnҒt good at it, but I was also ill-suited for it. I thought I could do anything, but I couldnt. I chose wrong. Once my self-awareness (and self-esteem) came to terms with why it happened, my view shifted, and so did my future.

Changing Your View

You can wait for perspective, or you can develop it. Like an architect taught to design by looking at something within a narrow context first, and then viewing it from wider and wider angles, we can learn to see our own life situations from different and wider vantage points; we can grow ғnew eyes, as it were.

Changing your view may take time, but you can start by nudging yourself toward new perspectives using these approaches:

1: The once-a-week, step back approach

Force yourself to step back from a narrow job-loss vista, in order to gain perspective at least once a week. Volunteer at a hospital, work with a charity, organize a community event, read to disadvantaged children, or help that elderly neighbor. Be of service.

ItԒs easy to lose perspective of whats going right in life. Keep your view clear. Or in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, ғThe best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

2: The see-the-world anew approach

Never taken a yoga class, read a mystery, or planted a garden? Always gravitate to the same websites, read the same magazines, or frequent the same establishments? Venture out. Drive back roads to the grocery store, take a class you never imagined, or learn to paint. You canԒt change your view to reboot career prosperity, make new connections, or notice hidden opportunities unless you replenish your soul and grow new learning pathways along the way.

3: The reframe-the-picture approach

Woe is me or an opportunity to retool? Personal tragedy or personal growth? Permanent scar or catalyst for a dream-pursuit? How you see your life is how you live it. What frame have you put around your job loss? Is it helping or hurting your personal view of your future?

Lee Iacocca said, “In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.” Thats true, but as you do, keep reframing the picture.

Go Beyond the Frog

The frog in the well, described by Mao Tse-Tung, captures the thought, ғWe think too small. Like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view.

When we suffer job-loss, we see the world from the vantage point of something taken away, something lost, something stolen from us. Yet, when we nudge ourselves to broaden our perspective and remerge from that well-of-loss to a larger world of opportunity, thereԒs a profound shift in our energy and our outlook. Thats because changing your view, changes everything. Try it!

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Posted by Elvis on 09/10/04 •
Section Dealing with Layoff
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In memory of the layed off workers of AT&T

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