Don’t Cell Out—Support Union Wireless Provider

by James Parks, May 13, 2006

Now you can support a pro-union, socially responsible company and also get great deals on phones and service. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has launched an online and radio advertising campaign urging the public to switch their wireless phone service to Cingular, the only unionized wireless company.

Cingular Wireless agreed to remain neutral in its employees’ efforts to form a union. As a result, a year after its merger with AT&T, some 17,000 former AT&T employees have joined CWA. Overall, the union represents some 40,000 Cingular employees who work under union contracts providing regular wage increases, good benefits and a voice on the job.

CWA President Larry Cohen says this about Cingular:

Cingular Wireless respects workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively. Before the merger with Cingular, 15,000 service reps, technicians and retail store employees at AT&T Wireless faced total management opposition when they joined our union.

But once the merger with Cingular was announced, CWA locals around the country reached out, explained what neutrality would mean and began committee-building inside. We negotiated neutrality and card-check. Even before that, Cingular management told the former AT&T managers that neutrality at Cingular would be enforced.

The Don’t Cell Out ads are running on Salon.com, DailyKos.com and Atrios.blogspot.com, as well as on Yahoo and Google search engines.

The ads link to www.CingularSwitch.com for information about making the switch to “the company that cares about workers’ rights.” Radio spots also are running on Air America stations in the Northeast.

And here’s an extra incentive. Union members receive a 5 percent discount when they switch.

The workers’ rights group, American Rights at Work, last month recognized Cingular for its outstanding relationship with workers. 

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