TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu> (04/11/90)
Illinois Bell telephone operators began informational picketing at the headquarters of Ameritech/Illinois Bell in Chicago on Monday, protesting what they believe will be a massive cut back in the number of employees needed when the telco's new automated operator services program begins here next month. As TELECOM Digest readers know, automated operator service equipment handles collect calls by tape-recording the name of the caller and obtaining a yes or no answer (regards acceptance of collect charges) from the called party. The operators claim Bell wants to eliminate their jobs and is running a risk of endangering callers in an emergency. Illinois Bell officials quickly countered that the new service is merely a technology upgrade that won't result in layoffs and won't endanger the lives of any callers. "Any caller dialing zero alone will still get a live operator and not the automated system," said Bell spokesman Larry Cose. "Only callers dialing zero plus an area code and number will get the system." Nevertheless, officials of the Communications Workers of America and union members gathered outside 225 West Randolph Street in Chicago on Monday to say they are beginning a media campaign that will urge Bell customers to reject the new system. Gayle Gray, a former Illinois Bell operator and president of CWA Union Local 4211 claims that if Bell goes through with its plan to automate more operator services, "anywhere from 35 percent to 75 percent" of Bell's current 2500-person operator staff could and would be eliminated. Larry Cose denied any plans to eliminate operators. He did say, however, that it was unlikely further operator hiring would be needed in the near future, and that many operators filling traditional operator roles would be transferred to Directory Assistance jobs. This seems to me like the 1950's all over again: As central offices by the hundreds cut over from manual service to dial service in the years followintg the Second World War, rumors of layoffs were plentiful among telephone operators everywhere. *None of it came to pass*. The final central office in Chicago to be cut from manual to dial was the AVEnue CO on the far northwest side of the city in 1951. The conversion to dial had actually started here in 1939, but was interuppted in early 1942 due to the shortage of equipment when Western Electric was put entirely into wartime production work. The conversion resumed in 1946. The operators at that CO 'just knew' they would be out of work soon. Six months after the dial cut was complete, Ohare International Airport (served at the time from that CO) completed its first major expansion. Nine months after the dial cut, AVEnue CO had fifty percent *more* operator staff than it did in all the years it was a manual exchange! Today's operators at Illinois Bell might be very surprised to learn how disproportionatly their ranks have changed in size over the years when compared to manual phone traffic versus the highly automated calling patterns of today. I think maybe the members of the CWA ought to read up on the history of their company, and its predecessor, the Chicago Telephone Company (which became Illinois Bell in the late twenties) before they complain too much about things of which they don't have a complete understanding. Patrick Townson