1,000 new workers join the CWA family

It’s not every day that our union gets the chance to add 1,000 new members to our family. But CWA has that opportunity, and we’re already making it a reality.

Here’s what you need to know:

Last year, AT&T Mobility bought Cricket Wireless, making more than 1,000 workers part of AT&T. But the merger didn’t make these workers part of CWA or the Unity@Mobility campaign.

Because of that, CWA activists have moved quickly to organize Cricket workers around the country. We’ve been mailing out information, visiting stores in person, and talking about the benefits of being part of our union.

Already, we’re seeing the fruits of this hard work: In November and December, Cricket employees in CWA District 6 voted to join the rest of AT&T’s retail employees and become a part of our union!

Some 470 workers from Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma are now part of the CWA family. That’s every Cricket retail worker in District 6. And that’s good news — not just for our new union brothers and sisters, but for all of us. Every new member of our union makes us that much stronger and pushes us toward our goal of organizing every wireless worker in America.

“The organizing went much smoother than I expected!” said Janell Zuberbier, an AT&T Mobility customer service rep from Local 6132 who helped to organize workers in Austin, Texas. “There was very little push-back from managers, and the Cricket employees really wanted to know that someone had their back. Nearly everyone joined when they learned about the strength we have.”

It’s a great first step, but we can’t stop now. There are hundreds of Cricket employees, including technicians and more than 100 retail locations, that have yet to be organized.

You can help welcome new Cricket workers to AT&T and CWA by sharing our graphic on Facebook.

And if you know any of these CWA activists, give them a special shout-out when you share this graphic. Thank them for helping to bring Cricket’s District 6 workers on board:

• Local 6110: Rudy Elizondo
• Local 6012: Chad Barnhill, Dave Ratcliff, Shelley Mims, LareRonita Ratcliff, Roger Waldrup
• Local 6016: Monica Eason, Jay Albertson
• Local 6132: Jason Peavler, Adriana Guzman, Janell Zberbier, Golson McIntosh, Steve Galindo
• Local 6137: Kristie Veit, Stacey Gilmore, Andrew Ita
• Local 6143: John Marshall, Aissia Triston, Sylvia Sanchez, Corina Gomez, Diana Lutz, Jesse Espinosa, Michelle Appaluccio, Ken Aden, Judy Peace
• Local 6206: Randy Agee, Jennifer Wiley
• Local 6222: Steve Flores, Evelyn Smith, Martha Hernandez, Joe Stine, Nancy Barrios, Rudy Ortega, Joe Lozano Jr, Val Crabbe-Givens, Julian Goode, Carlos Ortiz-Roman
• Local 6229: Phillip Ramirez, Rudy Corona, Eddie Salinas, Edgar Gomez, Adrian Guzman, Albert Limas, Tara Schussler, Edward Rodriguez, Aris Chapa
• Local 6300: Erin Gagnon, Jeff Spraul, Mike LaVoie, Mike Paplanus
• Local 6327: Anetra Session, Sheryl Janeski, Leslie Broils, Lisa Foster
• Local 6402: Chris Greer, Darla Hefron-Blake, Sonya Lasseter, Tammy Chaffee.
• Local 6502: Mary Ann Hopkins, Jim Murray, Will Wooten, Todd Seaman
• Local 6505: Michael Richmond, Joe Grubbs
• Local 6507: Gerald Murray, Carolyn Williams
• Local 6733: Carmen Mata, Mory Martinez, Jason Parrott
• Special Assignment Organizer Yolanda Anderson
• Staff Representatives Charlie Torres and Stephanie Collier

Other CWA Locals that have organized Cricket workers include Local 1000 in New Jersey; Local 7050 in Arizona; Local 13000 in Pennsylvania; and Locals 1122 and 1170 in New York.