I am proud to stand with the 20,000 @CWAUnion members who are on strike.

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Wanna bet they paid ZERO in federal taxes?

https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/annual-report-suggests-att-paid-no-cash-income-taxes-in-2018-and-slashed-capital

[Uncle Joe]

2. Thanks for the addition CurtEastPoint

A new analysis of AT&’s 2018 SEC filings by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) suggests the company paid no cash income taxes in 2018 -- the same year it cut a staggering number of jobs and closed call centers throughout the United States.

Based on the supplementary disclosures in AT&T’s most recent annual report, the analysis shows that AT&T’s worldwide cash income tax payments in 2018 were less than zero. In fact, AT&T says after refunds, it enjoyed a net tax rebate of $354 million in 2018. The report, however, does not provide adequate detail to fully understand AT&T’s tax expenditures and prompts questions about whether AT&T paid any federal income taxes at all last year. CWA is calling on AT&T to provide a detailed disclosure of its tax liabilities, expenditures, and refunds over the past three years to give Congress and the public better insight into the true impact of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act.

(snip)

AT&T and CEO Randall Stephenson lobbied for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act saying it would create more middle-class jobs and raise wages. However, the telecom giant’s own numbers show it has eliminated nearly 12,000 jobs since the tax cuts took effect. The company recently announced the closure of call centers in Indianapolis, Ind., Kalamazoo, Mich., Appleton, Wis., Syracuse, N.Y, and Meriden, Conn. Earlier this month AT&T announced a major restructuring in its WarnerMedia unit which is expected to result in significant layoffs.

CWA has been leading the charge to hold AT&T and other corporations accountable to their tax bill promises by publicly challenging them to reveal their spending plans for the tax windfall. CWA and other major unions filed information requests at over five companies and took action against companies like AT&T over its broken tax bill promises.

https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/annual-report-suggests-att-paid-no-cash-income-taxes-in-2018-and-slashed-capital

[iamthebandfanman]

3. AT&T

Ive often wondered.. why did we let AT&T gobble up all the bells again after they were broken up before?

[Uncle Joe]

4. and Time Warner. When six mega conglomerates constitute 90%

of everything the American People see, hear, read and that's okay, I don't know what constitutes a monopoly or trust anymore?

As to your question iamthebandfanman, no doubt serious money and the accompanying political influence played a role.

[George II]

5. Do they realize that if his healthcare insurance plan gets enacted, he's going to take away....

...their hard earned benefit of lifetime healthcare insurance four years later?

By the way, that "$19 billion in profits" that he insinuates goes to executives is false. There are about 7.5 billion outstanding shares of ATT stock, billions of which are owned by average Joes who invest either in the stock market or mutual funds (including BS himself).

Last year ATT's dividend was $2.04 per share, meaning more than $15 billion of that "$19 billion in profits" was paid back to shareholders - again, everyday Americans who have invested in ATT stock or mutual funds that contain ATT stock.

THAT is the fact.

[Uncle Joe]

6. "Average Joes"

What Percent Of Americans Own Stocks?

(snip)

We’ve seen over a 200% rise in the S&P 500 from 2009 – 2018, meaning that serious wealth has been made by the wealthiest of Americans. What’s even more astounding is that the top 1 percent of households by wealth owned nearly 38 percent of all stocks shares according to research by NYU economist Edward Wolff.

Surprisingly though, stock ownership has fallen to only around 52% overall since the financial crisis. This is shocking and unfortunate since the S&P 500 has been marching to new record highs each year. Check out the latest data below.



So what does this all mean? The wealth gap continues to increase. Those families in the 90th percentile have a net worth of almost $1,000,000. Meanwhile, those in the 50th percentile or below hardly have any net worth at all.



(snip)

https://www.financialsamurai.com/what-percent-of-americans-own-stocks/

The Top 4 AT&T Shareholders (T)

1. Randall L. Stephenson
AT&T's chief executive officer (CEO) has been with the company since 1982 and ranks as its largest individual shareholder. According to a June 29, 2018 SEC filing, Stephenson owns 916,807 shares directly and 1.24 million shares indirectly. Since 2007, Stephenson has been instrumental in transitioning the company from traditional phone lines to wireless services. Through several acquisitions under his leadership, AT&T has expanded its public Wi-Fi footprint, offered a variety of web and video services, and built out its 4-gigabyte network. Stephenson has served in a variety of roles including marketing, operations and finance. He served as the company’s chief operating officer (COO) from 2004 until his appointment as CEO in 2007.

2. John T. Stankey
John T. Stankey is the CEO of the AT&T Entertainment Group. He is the second-largest individual shareholder, with the latest SEC filing listing him as owning 625,384 shares indirectly as of June 29, 2018. Stankey began his career with Pacific Bell, which became part of AT&T Teleholdings Inc. in 1985. He was then steadily promoted through different parts of the organization. Some of Stankey's roles have included chief information officer (CIO), chief technology officer (CTO), CEO of AT&T’s Southwest region and president of industry markets. Following the Time Warner deal, Stankey will effectively run all Time Warner assets.

3. John J. Stephens
John J. Stephens is the senior executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) of AT&T.Stephens is the third-largest shareholder with 237,466 shares held indirectly and 376,616 shares owned directly as of June 29, 2018. Stephens began his career with Ernst & Young as a tax senior manager. He joined AT&T in 1992 as the director of federal taxes in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2000, Stephens was appointed vice president of taxes, a position he held until 2001 when he was named CFO for the diversified business unit.

(snip)

4. Rafael de la Vega
Rafael de la Vega is the former vice chairman of AT&T and former CEO of its business solutions and international divisions. He left the company at the end of 2016 and his stock ownership as reflected in his SEC filings dated December 2016 stands at 489,992 shares held directly and 334,240 shares held indirectly. Since he is no longer a part of the company, these numbers may differ from the company's March 2018 proxy statement.

(snip)

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/052516/top-4-att-shareholders-t.asp

[George II]

7. That's 4.3 million shares, leaving 7,295,000,000 remaining (that's 7.295B)

[Uncle Joe]

8. and when AT&T laid off 12,000 "Average Joes and Joans" despite

stating that if they got a big tax it would create jobs, who benefited the most from that?

[George II]

9. It's shared equally across the entire 7+ billion shares.

By the way, Bernie and Jane Sanders are among those millions of "average Joes" who invest in mutual funds that are made up of shares of stock for many of the corporations that he hates so much.

For example, they are invested in CREF Stock Account - R1.

And what stocks make up that fund? A few examples:

Apple
Microsoft
Amazon (!!)
Facebook
Johnson & Johnson (!!)
Bank of America
Visa

15% of that fund is invested in Health Care, 14.6% in the Financial Industry, 8.6% in Communication Services (including AT&T)

That's only one of 30 mutual funds in their portfolio.

This makes it difficult to understand the outrage against "corporate America", "big Pharma", "Wall Street", etc.

[Uncle Joe]

10. and Bernie is supporting the strikers. Which individuals benefited the most from laying off

12,000 "average Joes and Joans despite getting a massive tax cut which they lobbied for because it would allow them to increase jobs and raise wages?

I will give you another hint.

The Top 4 AT&T Shareholders (T)

1. Randall L. Stephenson
AT&T's chief executive officer (CEO) has been with the company since 1982 and ranks as its largest individual shareholder. According to a June 29, 2018 SEC filing, Stephenson owns 916,807 shares directly and 1.24 million shares indirectly. Since 2007, Stephenson has been instrumental in transitioning the company from traditional phone lines to wireless services. Through several acquisitions under his leadership, AT&T has expanded its public Wi-Fi footprint, offered a variety of web and video services, and built out its 4-gigabyte network. Stephenson has served in a variety of roles including marketing, operations and finance. He served as the company’s chief operating officer (COO) from 2004 until his appointment as CEO in 2007.

2. John T. Stankey
John T. Stankey is the CEO of the AT&T Entertainment Group. He is the second-largest individual shareholder, with the latest SEC filing listing him as owning 625,384 shares indirectly as of June 29, 2018. Stankey began his career with Pacific Bell, which became part of AT&T Teleholdings Inc. in 1985. He was then steadily promoted through different parts of the organization. Some of Stankey's roles have included chief information officer (CIO), chief technology officer (CTO), CEO of AT&T’s Southwest region and president of industry markets. Following the Time Warner deal, Stankey will effectively run all Time Warner assets.

3. John J. Stephens
John J. Stephens is the senior executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) of AT&T.Stephens is the third-largest shareholder with 237,466 shares held indirectly and 376,616 shares owned directly as of June 29, 2018. Stephens began his career with Ernst & Young as a tax senior manager. He joined AT&T in 1992 as the director of federal taxes in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2000, Stephens was appointed vice president of taxes, a position he held until 2001 when he was named CFO for the diversified business unit.

(snip)

4. Rafael de la Vega
Rafael de la Vega is the former vice chairman of AT&T and former CEO of its business solutions and international divisions. He left the company at the end of 2016 and his stock ownership as reflected in his SEC filings dated December 2016 stands at 489,992 shares held directly and 334,240 shares held indirectly. Since he is no longer a part of the company, these numbers may differ from the company's March 2018 proxy statement.

(snip)

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/052516/top-4-att-shareholders-t.asp

[George II]

11. All shareholders benefited "equally" in proportion to the number of shares they hold, including....

....Jane and Bernie Sanders.

They profited by those layoffs, too. If one was so vehemently opposed to big pharma, wall street, big corporations, Amazon, Walmart, the banks, etc., wouldn't it behoove that person to NOT be invested in those industries?

Based on his Senate Personal Financial Disclosure ( https://efdsearch.senate.gov/search/view/annual/79926514-81b5-4154-9ded-e9b5779dc31d/ ), roughly half of his reported net worth in 2016 is invested in those industries. Don't you find that disturbing?

[ehrnst]

12. Facts... no FAIR!

[Uncle Joe]

13. It was a simple question with no qualifiers which you couldn't bring yourself to answer

"Which individuals benefited the most from laying off 12,000 "average Joes and Joans" despite getting a massive tax cut which they lobbied for because it would allow them to increase jobs and raise wages?"

I even provided a link with the top four shareholders of AT&T and you throw smoke out there about "proportion."

You also fail to acknowledge that while AT&T lobbied for those tax cuts under false pretenses that it would increase employment and raise wages Bernie debated and voted against it.

Hence Bernie voted against his own best financial interests because too many Americans were being left behind by this giveaway to the already fabulously wealthy.

Sanders: This Tax Bill Will Be Remembered As One Of The Greatest Robberies In American History

BERNIE SANDERS: As I think about what's going on here today, I think this is in many ways a historic day, a day that historians will look back on: December 1, 2017.

And they will conclude that today is the day of one of the great robberies, criminal activities if you like, in the modern history of this country, because the federal treasury is being looted tonight.

As we speak, there are lobbyists all over Capitol Hill writing down in handwriting, amendments to this bill to give hundreds of millions, if not billions in tax breaks, billions of dollars in tax breaks to large corporations.

(snip)

Meanwhile, the Rrepublican-led Senate has been unable to reauthorize the CHIP program, the health insurance program for low-income children. Didn't have enough time to do that. We have been unable to reauthorize the community health center program, providing 27 million people with health insurance. We don't have the time to do that.

(snip)

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/12/01/sanders_this_tax_bill_will_be_remembered_as_one_of_the_great_robberies_in_history.html

Yea right, keep talking about "proportion" George.

[George II]

14. Inasmuch as there are probably millions of ATT shareholders, that's not an answerable question....

...since there are all those millions of shareholders in addition to the four you mention. I'll leave the ranking of those millions of shareholders to you.

All I can say for sure is that all shareholders benefited, including Bernie and Jane Sanders. They obviously benefited from the Wall Street bailout, too.

As for voting against his own interests, we can used the "Bernie rationale", IOW his vote didn't affect the final outcome anyway.

[ehrnst]

17. +1000. (nt)

[susanr516]

15. My husband retired from AT&T with over 38 years service

I must correct you regarding our insurance benefits. Our benefits are most assuredly NOT guaranteed for our lifetimes. Just like wages, benefits are negotiated at every contract. We are only guaranteed those benefits for the life of the current contract. When he was working, contracts were renegotiated every 3 years. Honestly, I don't know how long the current contract is any longer.

As a retiree, my husband and I are currently dependent upon CWA negotiating new contracts which include retiree health care benefits. They currently reimburse us for our Medicare Part B and pay all or part, depending upon what we select, on Medicare Advantage or Medigap plans. The current contract also has a no cost to retiree and spouse Part D prescription plan, and funds HSAs for both the retired employee and spouse. I can remember several contracts when active CWA members, including my husband, turned down a larger hourly wage increase in favor of protecting benefits for both active and retired employees.

Bernie doesn't even make my top 5 list of primary favorites, but there is not a single union contract that contains any lifetime wage or benefit. Since my husband started with AT&T in 1973, we've never had anything guaranteed for longer than the life of the current contract. If the laws change, new contracts will be negotiated between unions and management.

[George II]

16. My brother was a member of CWA in New York City (NY Tel). He retired in his 40s...

...back in the 1980s, and he has full medical insurance coverage for life.

He's had major health issues (heart) and has probably run up more than a million dollars in costs over the years. He hasn't had to pay a penny of that. I don't know how much has been Medicare and how much his insurance plan, but he pays nothing. He may, however, have to pay the ~$120 per month Medicare premium, though.