http://www.cwa-union.org/cingular/cingular-ads.htmlCWA Ad Campaign Promotes Cingular--the Only Unionized Wireless Company
The Communications Workers of America launched an online and radio advertising campaign on May 8 urging the public to switch their wireless phone service to Cingular--the only unionized wireless company.
CWA's Web ads appear on the popular blogs Salon.com, DailyKos.com, and Atrios.blogspot.com (Eschaton), as well as on Yahoo and Google. Radio spots are running on Air America stations in the Northeast. Click here to listen to the radio ad (MP3, 2.3MB).
Viewers and listeners are invited to visit www.CingularSwitch.com for information about making the switch to "the company that cares about workers' rights," or to register for follow up information if they are still under contract to another carrier.
CWA's message points out that customers can support a socially responsible wireless company and also get great deals on phones and service, as well as Cingular's exclusive Rollover minutes and access to the nation's largest wireless network.
Some 40,000 Cingular workers are represented by CWA and work under union contracts providing regular wage increases, good benefits and a voice on the job.
http://comcastwatch.com/action/index.htmlWhy We Need the Employee Free Choice Act
Comcast Corporation: A Systematic Campaign to Deny Workers' Rights
Comcast Corp. is the nation's biggest provider of cable services, with 24 million cable subscribers and big plans for moving into new communications technology.
It's a highly profitable company, one that pays its top executives well, while workers earn, on average, about $27,000 a year.
Comcast also is a company that has a systematic strategy to intimidate and misinform workers about unions, stall bargaining where workers have voted for union representation and when all else fails, orchestrate decertification campaigns to bring about a "union-free" environment.
Just a few examples:
* In 2002, Comcast illegally fired two Pittsburgh area technicians who were union supporters. A year later, both were ordered to be reinstated by arbitrators, along with back pay and compensation for lost benefits.
Workers in Pittsburgh continue to fight for a first contract, nearly four years after voting for a union voice. In fact, these workers have voted for union representation in three National Labor Relations Board elections.
But under current labor law, they and more than 2,000 others who voted for a union can't get a contract.
A worker in Beaver Falls, Pa., also was fired for trying to organize a union.
Comcast's latest tactic: Pittsburgh area layoffs that target union supporters and blame the Communications Workers of America for the job losses.
Comcast is so determined to keep out the union that it won't agree to contract language in Pittsburgh that it has agreed to at other locations.
* In Hialeah, Fla., Comcast fired a union supporter who was called to active duty with the Navy in Guantanamo Bay in 2001. Comcast refused to return this employee to work after his military service was finished. The NLRB determined that Comcast had erred and called on the company to reinstate the worker. When Comcast refused, the NLRB issued a complaint. The worker accepted a cash settlement.
* In Ocean City, Maryland, Comcast orchestrated a decertification campaign by refusing to provide the retiree health care benefits that are standard at non-union facilities to workers at Ocean City. Three technicians nearing retirement age were forced to choose between retirement security and union representation.
In more than three dozen communities, Comcast has violated labor law and refused to respect workers' rights to make a free and fair choice. The company also spends millions of dollars on union-busting law firms.
Subterfuge is another favorite Comcast tactic. In Sacramento in 2003, Comcast found an employee to press for decertification of the union. That employee was rewarded with a promotion into a non-union represented job.
A similar tactic was used in Los Angeles, where an employee who agreed to head up the decertification campaign was made a maintenance supervisor. The company permitted workers to distribute anti-union material on company time. A Comcast manager even told workers there that he had been ordered to "do whatever it takes to get rid of the union in Los Angeles."
Comcast also has created what it calls the "Labor Swat Team." This team is deployed to any location in the country to wage a union decertification campaign. At captive audience meetings, workers are asked "what will it take to get rid of the union?" Short term fixes might be made, but workers continue to face losing their union or being unable to bargain a contract.
All of these tactics violate the letter and spirit of federal labor law. Yet Comcast, like so many other companies, realizes that there is no real penalty for violating workers' rights. Please take a stand for working Americans, who simply want to exercise the rights they have under federal law: to freely and fairly choose whether they want union representation in the workplace.
http://www.cwa-union.org/verizon/news-info/why-EFCA.htmlVerizon Wireless in the Workplace: A Clear Pattern of Illegal Discrimination, Unlawful Behavior, and Union Avoidance
Why We Need the Employee Free Choice Act
Verizon Wireless in the Workplace: A Clear Pattern of Illegal Discrimination, Unlawful Behavior, and Union Avoidance
Verizon Wireless is one of the nation's biggest wireless providers, serving 42 million customers.
It's also a company that shows total disregard for labor law and the right of employees to make a free choice about union representation in the workplace.
Over the past few years, workers at Verizon Wireless who wanted a union voice have been fired and laid off, harassed and intimidated by supervisors, required to attend "captive audience" meetings and otherwise instructed that union supporters weren't welcome at Verizon Wireless.
Call centers that had a growing number of union supporters were shut down between 2000 and 2004, putting 2,000 people out of work in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey and transferring that work to the Southeast.
Verizon Wireless repeatedly broke the agreement it made with the Communications Workers of America in 2000 to remain neutral in union campaigns in Verizon Wireless workplaces in the Northeast, and to adopt a system of cardcheck recognition to enable workers to freely choose union representation.
Instead, Verizon Wireless chose litigation, endless delay and old-fashioned union-busting, complete with an anti-union website, threats of plant closings, surveillance of union supporters and an aggressive campaign against CWA.
Regional directors of the National Labor Relations Board continue to issue complaints against Verizon Wireless, most recently last fall for firing two employees in Rockland County, N.Y., and Pittsburgh, Pa., who were union supporters. Other complaints cited Verizon Wireless for retaliatory discipline against two union activists, enforcement of an illegal rule against union solicitation and interference with employee discussions.
But the penalties for breaking current labor law aren't much of a deterrent. Under one settlement Verizon Wireless reached with the NLRB, the company merely had to post a notice promising "not to do anything that interferes with, restrains or coerces our employees" in the future. This was sent to workers at the shut down Massachusetts center.
Members of Congress who support the Employee Free Choice Act are urged to hold Verizon Wireless to the standards of that legislation: neutrality, cardcheck recognition and a work environment for employees that is free of intimidation and harassment.
Congressman George Miller (D-Calif.) is circulating a letter from House Members to Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon Wireless' parent company, calling for full compliance with the letter and spirit of federal labor law.
If you haven't yet signed on, please consider adding your name and making a stand for true workers' rights.
CWA, IBEW and the AFL-CIO are working together to restore workers' rights for Verizon Wireless workers.
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