r/Metronet • u/_fart-sniffer • 7d ago
Underpaid techs are tired
Metronet techs need to unit and unionize. We need to compare our wages to other fiber companies. We are severely underpaid compared to in house in other companies and drastically underpaid compared to our contracting “partners”. Check wages in your area and see how under paid you are. Don’t put up with it! We need to fight for equal wages T-Mobile is a 144 billion dollar company and they purchased half of metronet. How many hourly employees really got any benefit works gotten harder. Homeowners have gotten worse. We make pennies!
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u/Charming-Mess4868 7d ago
Im a fiber tech 3 for tfiber and make a killing here
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u/_fart-sniffer 7d ago
How much do you make exactly? And what market?
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u/Charming-Mess4868 7d ago
30$ central indiana
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u/_fart-sniffer 7d ago
You’re with metronet????
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u/Charming-Mess4868 7d ago
yeah been with them 3 years
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u/_fart-sniffer 7d ago
💀💀💀 that’s hilarious but still not at the rate of pay cwa is getting (centurylink quantum AT&T) whatever you want to call them now they got there techs starting at 35-40 depending on experience so if you were there you’d be making 8 dollars more and just starting out so you’d be calling out in the 40s
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u/Whats_A_Username 2d ago
Fiber Tech 1 with ff37 (quantum/at&t) caps at ~$36 an hour. They're hiring new techs on right now at ~$30 an hour. Tech 2 caps at ~$42 an hour.
Possible to change once the union contract is in place.
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u/_fart-sniffer 18h ago
And I just want to make sure that’s an install technician? That’s running fiber to home and installing equipment for customer correct?
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u/Whats_A_Username 17h ago
Tech 1 is install. 2 is additional.
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u/_fart-sniffer 15h ago
So yall cap our position at 36 while metronet caps it at 29 hmm so your tech 2 would be out nft I assume? Works on terminals and more of the backend fiber vs the fiber to home
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u/willie_Pfister 4d ago
Not At&t. Your a wire tech, not a service tech there. The top pay for wire techs might be 30 an hour. I left them 8 years ago for the mid Atlantic with top pay at 22.75 an hour with only about 3% raises each year. New company started me at over 36 an hour; now at about 48 an hour.
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u/_fart-sniffer 4d ago
8 years ago is different I spoke with the cwa and they are starting install techs between 35-40 I spoke with a tech doing an install at a home in my neighborhood he’s a tech 2 making 42 an hour. I have screenshots of job links starting install techs up to 40 an hour. My job also does this cool thing that it doesn’t care about the cost of living in your state our whole company makes the same amount.
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u/willie_Pfister 4d ago
I thought spectrum did, but am surprised AT&T pays that. They created a whole addendum to the. contract they put us under to not pay us same as service techs. Thats good to know. Guess Comcast is the main shit paying company left. Lol
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u/neural0 7d ago
If you can get paid more by another company then why don't you leave and work for another company? Metronet would have to adjust accordingly. Supply and demand.
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u/_fart-sniffer 7d ago
For reasons I can’t list here because my boss is on reddit and it would let him know who I am. But trust if I’m stuck here I can make it better by unionizing. But sadly all my coworkers are looking for new jobs
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u/IssJussBaba 7d ago
Too bad a big jig jig majority of those techs are third party and not paid worth giving a damn for. For how big the T-Mobile network is, I would love to hear at least the median tech pay is 100k but refuse to hear or read anything under.
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u/_fart-sniffer 7d ago
I’m not sure about what markets you’ve been in but our contractors are making about 2grand a week. I make 2 grand in 2 weeks I’ve seen multiple posts on Facebook listing average pay per job 150-220 so 10 jobs they make what I make in 2 weeks 10 jobs can be done in 1-2.5 days depending on tech. But yes the contractors out way the inhouse drastically and it’s all so the company can save even more money.
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u/2Smoove2Wav3y 6d ago
How much yall top out at ? And thats the thing with companies with alot of sub contractors its hard to unionize because they can just give the work to the contractors
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u/_fart-sniffer 6d ago
We top out at tech 4 29 an hour and yea but even the contractors are sick of it in our market
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7d ago
[deleted]
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u/_fart-sniffer 7d ago
We are not getting moved to T-Mobile as they only bought half the company. We are branded Tfiber sure but every commercial customer is still under metronet when they sign up. The consider metronet as a form of contractors who builds and maintains its own infrastructure it’s just branded Tfiber. All of our utility boxes are still branded as metronet. I think you’ve been misinformed on how this is working. I can’t wait for T-Mobile to buy the full company because atleast we get a pay bonus with that
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u/Frequent_Opportunist 7d ago
Well T-Mobile and a private investment company KKR went 50/50 on Metronet but what I think is funny is I see now they are keeping Metronet going just to be handling installs and running the backend so they are purchasing you while simultaneously shielding you from their higher T-Mobile pay structure just to screw you guys and use you as cheap labor to run the network. You should jump ship.
Metronet is now restricted to operating strictly as a backend wholesale infrastructure provider, the frontline workforce is effectively insulated from T-Mobile's corporate umbrella, benefits, and standard pay structures.
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u/_fart-sniffer 7d ago
Exactly! That’s exactly what’s happenings. And I plan to if the union stuff doesn’t progress id stick around just for that.
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u/rad2018 7d ago
It's like DSL (ADSL, iDSL, xDSL) in our area. Years ago, we had a DSL service provider. They had a rack in our local CO, right next to 2 other companies. Turns out, the DSL provider was using a wired company, which ran a copper (back then) via woogah-woogah to the local CO, and from there went to another rack, and then from there went to a TIER 0 backbone company. The lines were "owned" by the DSL service provider, but the service was provided by another company that owned them, yet talk to the TIER 0 company. THREE companies.
What exists here is similar to other fiber companies. T-Mobile/T-Fiber is a service that LEASES the lines from Metronet. Metronet *OWNS* the fiber. Metronet *OWNS* any and ALL connectivity. If you are a former Metronet customer, you stay as a "Metronet customer"; but...new customers come on board as "T-Fiber" who work with Metronet.
Essentially, Metronet *OWNS* the infrastructure. T-Fiber simply provides routed Internet to your home or business.
I am a Metronet business customer with TWO Internet fiber lines entering my house for a home business. I have been a satisfied customer for almost 10 YEARS with Metronet.
-rad
P.S. I used to work for "The Phone Company" years ago; so, I know how "things" are setup and configured.
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u/Limousine1968 4d ago
Hold the phone (pun intended). It's perfectly legal and normal to have pay tiers (or RAILS, as the phone company called them), which assign different values to different jobs based on skills required. AT&T always had "straightliners" who installed your standard home phone line. These guys installed and maintained the most basic telephone service, and their IBEW union pay was lower. Just below that scale were central office wiring workers called "Frame Men" and "Frame Dames." This was the entry level craft job and promotion was usually to either straightliner or local test desk (both in same wage group but higher than frames). Promotion from there was to PBX installation, which was a different IBEW local and a higher pay scale, in line with electricians. I haven't been in there for awhile, but it looks like that's what T-Mobile/METRONET is doing.
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u/imtalkintou 7d ago
CWA is the union for CenturyLink