[Boatanchors] Western Electric

[JAMES HANLON]

I used to work for Bell Labs, from 1962 through 1989.  I worked at Whippany and Murray Hill in New Jersey, then a break from 1/65 to 6/58 for more school, and then in Allentown designing semiconductor memory and finally at Columbus (70 through 89) in the Electromechanical Switching Apparatus Laboratory.  I was intimately involved with Western Electric during those years, had a lot of products being made in WE plants across the country.  In 1989 my Lab was being "downsized," and I wound up finding work for fifteen guys who worked for me at various other AT&T locations, and I placed myself with Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque which was then managed by AT&T.  I transferred with my salary and my experience toward retirement, thank God.  The only thing I lost in the move was two days of vacation.  I was very fortunate to have made that move when I did.  A few years later AT&T closed the WE plant in Columbus where our BTL was co-located (a "branch lab"), and they forced all of the Bell Labs employees who had enough time to retire early and laid off the rest.  So much for loyalty to your employees!  Sandia Labs passed on from AT&T management, now to Lockheed Martin, and they are still a healthy company to work for, although I understand that the managers have recently been schooled in Critical Race Theory.  That's what they have to endure for being a contractor to the Department of Energy.

When I worked for Bell Labs, part of my compensation package was in Western Electric stock.  Before I left I had somewhere around $100K worth, but they would not release it to me at that time.  They waited until the Bell System breakup had just about destroyed Western Electric and the stock was worth maybe $1K.  Good old AT&T, at this point I have very little respect for them.  I do subscribe to Direct TV, recently acquired by AT&T.  The service guys from Direct TV grouse about how they are being treated in the change-over, and I certainly emphasize with them.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

Jim Hanlon, W8KGI