WORK & TECHNOLOGY IN TELEPHONE
Newman, David
in late 1971 and early 1972, for over seven months, 38,000 craft and clerical employees of New York Telephone struck in defiance of our employer and our national union, the Communication Workers...
...In a centralized location in lower Manhattan, the company has established an Automated Switching Control Center (ASCC...
...We lost the strike, and in the past decade we have also lost a good deal of our pride, confidence, skills, autonomy, jobs, and strength as unionists...
...58 Working in ESS at that time entailed learning new skills—disregarding previously acquired electromechanical experience and adapting to computers and electronics...
...subscribers' calls, and conversion is expected to be complete by the year 2000...
...Fewer workers are now needed in the central offices (COs), and workers in the control center can now monitor more than one CO at a time...
...VDTs and their associated computer linkages could be decentralized...
...ESS is characterized by microelectronic technology, which has the potential to integrate digital switching and digital transmission with stored program (software) control...
...But since this conflicts with management's goal of centralizing knowledge and authority, the new technology decreases our skill level, rather than upgrades it...
...Close supervision, machine-paced work, restrictions on our ability to walk and talk produce anxiety and stress...
...To 'Illustrate: The earlier ESS offices in the late 1960s and 1970s were usually staffed by 8 to 15 switching equipment technicians, down from much larger workforces in panel and crossbar offices serving an equal number of subscribers...
...One factor in this change is a reorganization of the work process, especially through the introduction of new technology...
...Certainly new equipment often engenders new skill requirements, and many of the changes that telephone workers have experienced may be traced to the new equipment itself...
...But the fundamental changes that we are now experiencing are not inherent in the new technology itself—they are a result of how management uses the new technology...
...The ASCC becomes the new workplace geographically separated from the equipment itself and with an entirely new and qualitatively different work process...
...As if these working conditions were not bad enough in human terms, they also endanger worker safety and health...
...Some have only one and some are unstaffed...
...The switching system is essentially the means by which a call is channeled on its way in response to the digits dialed...
...What differentiates ESS is the additional options it offers to management...
...The heart of the telecommunications network is the switching system...
...Not only do they communicate with machines rather than people, but management has surrounded each VDT work station with plexiglass so that conversation with a fellow worker only four feet away is impossible...
...First introduced in 1965, ESS equipment today processes well over 50 percent of U.S...
...Just as the introduction of each previous system was accompanied by changes in workforce levels and skill requirements, ESS involves similar changes...
...in late 1971 and early 1972, for over seven months, 38,000 craft and clerical employees of New York Telephone struck in defiance of our employer and our national union, the Communication Workers of America...
...The newest version is electronic switching, ESS, which adapts computerization to call switching and results in greatly increased capacity, simplified maintenance, and a versatility not found in previous switching systems...
...Yet ESS, unlike previous systems, offers new and radically different options that the company uses to alter both the relationship of craft workers to management and to each other, and not only the type required but the level of skills...
...Let's take a look at some of the technological changes now taking place in telephone...
...ESS replaces the older mechanical and electromechanical switching systems—panel, Number One and Number Five crossbar...
...That is unlikely today...
...Moreover, workers are isolated...
...Are changes in our jobs inherent in the new technology...
...Working in the control center entails a loss of physical mobility and means being restricted to a much smaller work area (one desk) under the eyes of management every minute of the day, and being paced by a machine...
...It is also true that some areas of skill and knowledge that had been utilized by switching technicians in prior systems did have their equivalents in ESS and that these were programmed into the machine rather than retained by the workers...
...The strike was the culmination of a struggle to assert our collective bargaining power and rights against AT&T, then and now the largest corporation in the world...
...Yet even those ESS offices that have been operating since that time with no major equipment or program changes are often down to two or three workers...
...This is a big change for most craft workers...
...In addition, working on VDTs may cause cataracts, eyestrain, dizziness, fatigue, and headaches...
...The ESS technology of 1981 is essentially identical to the ESS technology of 1971...
...coverage is expected to reach 50 percent in four years...
...How has this happened...
...In 1971, a switching technician could reasonably expect to become familiar with and responsible for all aspects of the switching process...
...Similar processes had occurred in the changes from panel to Number One crossbar to Number Five crossbar...
...It is the largest area of capital investment, probably accounting for about one third of AT&T's fixed assets...
...It is the wave of the future—the framework into which all telecommunications services can be fitted...
...The strike was also a reflection of the confidence we had in the skill, autonomy, and initiative we exercised in our work...
...In 1976, ESS was adapted to long-distance call switching...
...If we had one in each central office, they would be valuable tools, helping us diagnose problems so that we could devise solutions...
...The control center could be used for backup assistance only...
...It could work differently...
...Working in the control center essentially consists of sitting in a clerical office in front of one or more video display terminals (VDTs), watching for alarms and trouble reports and utilizing the VDT to perform certain work operations in a central office that may be miles away...
...The goal is to unstaff all COs, and to dispatch switching equipment technicians as need arises...
...One ESS option that management chooses to exercise is its capability for remote monitoring and maintenance functions...
Vol. 29 • January 1982 • No. 1
