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Comcast Workers’ Tenacity Pays Off with ‘Historic Victory’ |
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Thursday, 18 May 2006 |
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It took five years of solidarity, tenacity and community support for Comcast workers in the Pittsburgh area to win a series of ground-breaking contracts with the notorious union-busting cable company.
Over the past three weeks, some 350 technical workers represented by Communications Workers of America Local 13000 ratified contracts at three facilities. Marge Krueger, the union’s chief negotiator, says the workers fought hard for union representation and contracts. I felt it was a privilege to work with people like that. I’ve been doing organizing for 20 years, and to see people just keep fighting and fighting—even though the company tried to beat them down so much—I just can’t say enough positive things about them. Says CWA President Larry Cohen: We could not be prouder of our members at Comcast, our Local 13000 leaders and our staff for never backing down, even as Comcast illegally fired workers and tried every other trick in the book to keep CWA out. These contracts represent a historic victory for us. Coupled with contracts ratified at two other Comcast facilities in the area last fall, western Pennsylvania now has the largest number of unionized employees in the company, Cohen said. The AFL-CIO helped build a religious coalition to back the workers. More than 100 clergy and religious leaders across the country formed the Religious Leaders for Justice at Comcast. The group joined with workers to leaflet outside the cable giant’s shareholder meeting in Philadelphia last year. Several clergy also spoke at the meeting, demanding that the company honor the workers’ desire for a union. The coalition also issued a strong open letter in support of the workers. The workers first joined the union in 2001 when they were employed by A&T Broadband, which merged with Comcast a year later. Comcast has aggressively fought workers’ efforts to form unions since the merger. The company promoted a campaign to decertify the union in 2002. When that failed, Comcast refused to bargain over a first contract. The company also fired a worker in Oakland, Calif., for speaking out at a public hearing on Comcast’s violations of labor laws. Another worker in Montgomery County, Md., and two workers in Pittsburgh were fired for supporting a union, according to arbitrators and a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge. The company went so far as to drop its pension plan for workers in one of the facilities in Beaver Falls, Pa. The Pittsburgh-area workers enjoyed strong support from members of the Pittsburgh City Council and other political leaders. U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) hosted a town hall meeting that helped increase pressure on Comcast to bargain. The contracts have different expiration dates, Krueger said. They all include an initial wage increase of 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent and a $700 signing bonus, as well as a second-year raise of 2.6 percent. |
