All C.W.A. local presidents with US WEST members, attended a meeting hosted by Greg Winn, Vice President of Network Operations, in Las Vegas, March 30, 1999.
Mr. Winn stated that he would answer any questions that he could, however I found many of his answers evasive.
When asked about the use of contractors, he stated that the company must use contractors, to get the plant back in shape in a short period of time. He fears that competition will take customers, since we can't provide service on the plant in place. When challenged on the quality of the contractors, he stated there had been a few bad cases, but over all their work was satisfactory. He also believes the quality control supervisors he has put in place will weed out any bad apples. When questioned about I&M contractors, he said that he was not aware that we were using any.
He was real high on the new productivity program! He feels that it will result in more customers getting their service on time. When questioned about training the new people, he said that their supervisor could help them through any problems. If necessary, the supervisor could step in and show them how to do the job.
There seems to be great concern that US WEST will lose customers to competition in the near future ! They want to deploy a video system, to supply video, telephone and Internet service to stay equal with the competition. He spoke of building a fiber to the node system in the next eighteen months.
When asked about trucks he stated, "They are coming."
At lunch, I asked him how Tacoma got left out of this wonderful picture he was painting. I feel that we are from different planets after hearing him speak and then relate it to what I see every day. For example, supervisors that can teach new people the new job; in Tacoma we do not have one supervisor that can perform the work that their crew performs. In most cases when the technicians have a problem, they have difficulty finding a simple enough way to explain it to their supervisor. "You are depressing me," he said, to which I replied "If hearing about it depresses you, imagine what it does to those of us who must see it every day!"
Mr. Winn said that the company is going to have to find a way to retain some of the senior employees after 1/1/01. He was told to load them down so heavy with money that they couldn't make it to the door.
After six hours, I came to the conclusion that Greg Winn is one of the most unaware people I've met, or he should be selling snake oil. Time will tell.
Dick Godwin, President
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