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New York EZ Pass Workers Need Your Help |
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The 300 customer-support workers at EZ Pass in Staten Island, N.Y., need your help. The workers’ employer, Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), announced it is changing the workers’ pay structure from an hourly wage to a piecework wage.
It is no coincidence, workers say, the change was announced on the same day the workers voted to join Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1102 despite a brutal anti-union campaign by ACS. The company held one-on-one meetings and captive audience meetings to intimidate workers.
To make matters worse, says Local 1102 President Ed Luster, ACS works directly with the New York State Thruway Authority and other state agencies to run the EZ Pass system in New York—meaning ACS in New York is funded by tax dollars.
Local 1102 is planning a major rally in support of the EZ Pass workers on Sept. 17. Click here for more information.
EZ Pass worker Barbara Elliot told the CWA convention:
Supervisors were free to further intimidate and frighten us. They made it nearly impossible for any pro-union worker to get out of our seats to discuss the union with co-workers.
What ACS is doing to the EZ Pass workers, she said, is “unacceptable and un-American.” (Click on the video above.)
Now the company has refused to bargain. It also appealed the vote, but the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) denied the appeal. If the Employee Free Choice Act is enacted, it would help stop employer abuse and restore the freedom to bargain.
The average pay for ACS workers is about $13 dollars per hour, but with the piecework scheme being implemented—what the company euphemistically terms “activity-based compensation”—the workers’ pay could drop to 83 cents per call, pushing some wages down to the state minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. CWA believes the company is making this move to punish workers for joining the union.
Click here to help put a quick stop to this scheme by e-mailing New York State Thruway Authority Chairman John Buono and demanding that the Authority tell their contractor to reject piecework at EZ Pass. Tax dollars should not be spent on paying workers poverty wages, especially as a punishment for joining a union.
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