Home
Archive
Newsletters
Video
Blogs
Discuss
About
Search
Donate
Advertise

Workers Win Test of 'Card-Check' Ruling

By Mischa Gaus, Labor Notes. Posted February 4, 2008.


Workers say they plan to change their low pay, expensive and limited health care, and high turnover.

Share and save this post:

      

      

Share on Facebook       

AlterNet Social Networks:
follow us on twitter
find us on Facebook

In Special Coverage

Belief:
Why I Want to Turn Religious People Into Atheists
Greta Christina

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
4 Myths About Taxes, Debunked
Paul Buchheit

DrugReporter:
The War on Weed: Marijuana Is Basically Harmless -- The Monumentally Stupid Drug War Is Not
Jim Hightower

Environment:
White House Garden Won't Make Up for Obama's Nomination of Pesticide Lobbyist for US Chief Agriculture Negotiator
Jill Richardson

Food:
Don't Be Scared of Food: Are We Being Needlessly Hysterical About Food Safety?
David E. Gumpert

Health and Wellness:
47,000 Women Could Die As a Result of the New Mammogram Guidelines
George Lakoff

Immigration:
Hate Group, FAIR, Is Looking for "Ethnically Ambiguous" Actors to Amplify Its Racism
Adam Luna

Media and Technology:
The Memory Scrub About Why Ft. Hood Happened Is Almost Complete ... If It Weren't for Archives
Mark Ames

Movie Mix:
The Yes Men: Pranksters Out to Fix the World
Mark Engler

Politics:
White House's Ties to Health Care Industry Deeper Than Visitor Records Show
Daniela Perdomo

Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Why Can't We Look Away From Sarah Palin?
Vanessa Richmond

Rights and Liberties:
Citing "National Defense Needs," Obama Administration Says it Won't Sign Ban on Land Mines
Amy Goodman

Sex and Relationships:
Hot Mormon Muffins and Models for Jesus: What's With All the Sexy Christians?
Liz Langley

Take Action:
G-20 Meetings: Nothing Much Happened in the Suites, and There Was Too Much Punch in the Streets
Laura Flanders

Water:
Poseidon's Financial Shell Game: Why Is a Private Desalination Plant Asking for Public Money?
Peter Gleick

World:
Is Obama Following in the Footsteps of Bill Clinton?
Jeff Cohen

More stories by Mischa Gaus

Advertisement
Upcoming AlterNet stories on Digg

In New Hampshire's biggest private sector organizing win in four decades, 588 AT&T call center workers who handle passport processing questions joined Communications Workers (CWA) Local 1298 in early January.

Workers said they plan to change their low pay, expensive and limited health care, and high turnover.

"There are a lot of stress factors involved in the job," said Darlene Perry, a member of workers' committee inside the facility. "People feel better now that we have the union. They feel like things are going to change."

The campaign was the first major test of the National Labor Relations Board's September Dana/Metaldyne decision (see Labor Notes January 2008), which allowed anti-union employees 45 days to derail a union chosen by a majority of their coworkers. As soon as workers show they have a majority of authorization cards (known as a "card check" recognition) the board decided anti-union employees can petition for decertification if 30 percent oppose the union. NEUTRALITY DEAL KEY

The New Hampshire workers were aided by a national neutrality agreement between CWA and AT&T. Despite the agreement, Peter Dobroski, a customer service representative who's signed up to be a steward, said workers had to fight rumors that the work would be outsourced.

The card check was certified by the American Arbitration Association on November 5, but workers had to wait until January to see if a small group of opponents would manage to overturn their majority.

The call center is in Dover, a town of 26,000 about an hour north of Boston. A full-time worker at the center makes less than $22,000 a year, and carries a family health insurance deductible of $5,000. Management cut full-time status to 35 hours a week three months ago, forcing workers to take overtime when it's offered.

New younger workers streamed into the center seven months ago to handle a crush of calls from panicked vacationers realizing they needed passports to visit most foreign destinations.

Perry said many were not well trained, and new workers constantly lose their jobs because the work requires a security clearance--a risk not apparent in AT&T's recruiting, she said.

"They get rapport with people, they get to know the work, then they're gone," she said. "It doesn't make for happy people."

Digg!    Share on facebook   submit to reddit    Bookmark on Delicious   Stumble This  

See more stories tagged with: labor, unions, efca, card-check

Mischa Gaus is an editor of Labor Notes, the country's largest cross-union magazine writing from a workers' perspective.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »


Advertisement
Advertisement

 

You've chosen to turn comments off for the entire site. Would you like to turn them back on?
  • AlterNetYour turn

Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.


Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.

Advertisement
Advertisement