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Here’s What Could Happen if Employee Free Choice Act Becomes Law |
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The Employee Free Choice Act would level the playing field for workers who want to join a union by among other things, allowing workers to choose a union if more than 50 percent of a worksite sign union authorization cards. Teresa Joyce and her co-workers at Cingular Wireless in Lebanon, Va., know that process works—they’ve seen it firsthand.
But it wasn’t always that way. When she started working at AT&T Wireless in 2003, she says she realized the employees had no voice and raises were determined by favoritism, not a reflection of work or ability.
When we complained about unfair treatment, supervisors just laughed at us.
The workers decided to join the Communication Workers of America (CWA). But when management found out, Joyce said they started treating her and others “like troublemakers.”
We were promptly taken off our jobs and told numerous lies about the negative effects of belonging to a union. Management also threatened that AT&T Wireless may leave our town, our employees could lose their jobs; or if they did stay, our union dues would be so enormous we may actually need two jobs. They took our pictures in the parking lots.
We would put out fliers in our break room and posters on the walls. Supervisors would tear them down and destroy them. It wasn’t a nice place to work.
Everyday I came to work, I didn’t know if I would lose my job. The way you would know that you were fired was that they would pack all your personal stuff in a box with your name on it and leave it at your desk.
The workers in Lebanon already knew what a union could do. Many of the residents of the coal mining town of about 3,300 in the mountains of southwestern Virginia, including Joyce’s husband, are members or relatives of members of the Mine Workers.
(The Mine Workers) were on strike in 1989. Everybody [in Lebanon] came and helped out to make sure the kids had Christmas.
When Cingular Wireless began merging with AT&T Wireless in 2004, Joyce along with other workers and management participated in a conference call with Cingular’s CEO to ask questions.
I heard Stan Sigmund say, “We have a wonderful relationship with the CWA and that each AT&T call center would be able to choose whether or not they wanted union representation.” I wanted to shout my joy for all of management to hear. We had hope! I’ll never forget the look on the supervisors’ faces. It was like they realized: “It could be me looking for a job.”
After Cingular took over, 60 percent of the workers signed union authorization cards and the workers at the call center have been union members for nearly two years. And it’s a different place to work, Joyce says:
We have better job security, we have guaranteed raises. Our health care costs less. We know in advance if management is going to make changes. It’s phenomenal.
The Employee Free Choice Act will give workers the choice to join a union without fear or intimidation, she says.
The union can be a great thing.
Cingular agrees with Joyce that unions are a great thing. In a report by American Rights at Work, Rick Bradley, Cingular’s executive vice president for human resources, says:
We believe that employees should have a choice….Making that choice available to them results, in part, in employees who are engaged in the business and who have a passion for customers.
CWA President Larry Cohen says the Cingular experience shows why the Employee Free Choice Act is so important.
Imagine if this was the experience for all workers in America. It could and it should be this straightforward for men and women to have a free and fair choice to form a union and work in partnership with their employer to make it a success.
Click here to see details of the Employee Free Choice Act.
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