She is not on our payroll at this point. |
Some groups, maybe religious groups, object to some programming that's on television and don't want to see it, but furthermore don't want to pay for it. I think the reality is that if you want to allow the development of new programming ideas and give start-up channels a chance to get out there and see if they're going to be successful, you need some mechanism to help get them going. |
Some other services may be slower as well, like repair or installation. |
That's happening outside of our system. |
The status of the bargaining is that we are continuing to talk. We continue to frankly plug through some of the more difficult issues that confront us. It's become sort of an intense, exhausting sort of a process. We're working through the issues one at a time. |
We are asking each business unit to manage their work flow, which means managers' jobs have been eliminated, not the union positions, and we have eliminated contract work, |
We believe we reached a good general framework for obtaining a contract, but right now we're down to the wire. I'm still optimistic that we'll get it done in a few days but I'm not sure we'll get it done today. |
We continue to negotiate, and we continue to be hopeful. However, the negotiating process is a two-way street and the unions have not been willing to approve a contract that would allow the company to remain competitive. |
We have been talking with the unions since late yesterday afternoon, ... non-stop intense talks with all sides fully engaged. It remains impossible not predict when these talks will end in a contract and get people back to their jobs. |
We have seen some positive movement on some of the issues, but this is a situation with a lot of moving parts. Those issues could change as we move to other issues. |
We sell our service to customers who call us, ... Our view is that if people don't want to be called, they won't be good sales prospects anyway. |
We think their behavior is outrageous for normal business commerce. Essentially they have refused to negotiate with us. |
We will certainly continue to negotiate with anybody who's here. We have no interest in walking away from talks. |
We're in a position that could results in a new contract, and the end of the strike and getting people back to work. |
We're looking at a variety of ways to address the demands of the marketplace. We're also very conscious of program contracts. |