Secular Apostate

The local telephone companies are bound down by the same lilliputian web of union rules under which the Big Three auto companies suffer. Having worked for, and consuted with, these telcos during my career, I know quite a bit about that problem.

In the mid-1980s, I did a lot of work here and abroad on expert systems. Basically, these are rule-based decision support applications that attempt to quantify the rules used by experts in a clearly defined, narrow domain. Although expert systems are considered to be a subfield of artificial intelligence, the successful ones normally don’t have many of the features usually associated with machine intelligence like natural language interfaces and learning capabilities. The best ones are really nothing more than a collection of rules used by experts to make decisions.

One of the most interesting, and wholly unsuccessful, expert systems I worked on was funded by GTE Laboratories. GTE has since been acquired by Verizon, but at the time it was a competitor with the local Bell Operating Companies.

GTE had a severe ongoing problem, as all local telcos had and still have, with union rules. First, they must deal with two unions: the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Normally, but not always, these two unions negotiate a contract together. Their contracts, like the UAW, are growing entities. Rules are added on every time they are re-negotiated. They never simply tear up the old contract in toto and start from scratch, despite the fact that the telephone business – as you may have noticed – has evolved quite a bit since the 1930s.

GTE wanted to build an expert system that reflected the rules in their current contracts so their first-level management could more easily comply with the myriad scheduling, seniority, overtime, etc. etc. rules with which they must comply.

At first, it sounded like a slam-dunk. After all, every single rule is written down on paper and sitting there on the desk.

However, it quickly became obvious that the task would not only be much more difficult, it was, in fact, technically impossible.

Why?

Because the contracts contained rules that were mutually exclusive. In a logic-based system, mutually exclusive rules are, to put it gently, a non-starter. Since the contracts had been negotiated over decades, no one ever had the time, and the unions obviously didn’t have the inclination, to go back and check all the new rules against the old rules.

In fact, the contracts literally could not be followed to the letter. It was logically impossible to play by the rules.

Which is very convenient for the union, because there’s always room for a grievance. In fact, the contracts guarantee grievances.

Now check this out:

Click on the image to visit LaborPains.org for more on this absurdity.

There is no doubt in my mind that this stack of left-o-gabble contains, in spades, the exact same problem GTE faced.

The only solution to this problem is to feed this monster into the shredder and start from scratch.

And the only road to get there is…

Bankruptcy.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 at 10:32 am and is filed under Sanity, etc., politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.