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50 Activists Focus on AT&T Organizing Challenges
The unique challenges of organizing at AT&T's wireless, broadband and local service entities were the focus as 50 CWA local activists and staff members met in St. Louis recently for the union's fourth AT&T Organizing Institute.
Organizing and bargaining first contracts at these lines of business - each the product of acquisitions by AT&T the last few years - follow a different set of rules as outlined by the negotiated Neutrality and Consent Election agreement.
Organizers also need to be prepared for every classic anti-union trick in the book and know how to document management violations of the NCE, the participants learned over the course of the three-day training workshop.
More than 200 members have now participated in special AT&T organizing institutes over the past two years, reported Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, who heads the union's organizing program.
Cohen and Communications and Technologies Vice President Ralph Maly jointly opened the institute and stressed that unionizing the non-union growth areas at AT&T are key to CWA's future effectiveness, and even survival, at AT&T. "There's no doubt that this company would like to be union-free, and their strategy is to try to contain us in the parts of the company that will shrink over time and keep us out of the growth jobs," Maly said.
The St. Louis institute put a special emphasis on organizing in wireless and local service businesses. "Our previous institutes focused almost entirely on broadband, and as a result we have had 27 campaigns at broadband with more in the works," he said.
The organizing effort at AT&T now is taking place against the backdrop of a massive breakup plan, which threatens the company's long-term success and which CWA is fighting on several fronts (see separate story). Assistant to the President George Kohl delivered a presentation at the institute on the implications of the restructure on CWA organizing efforts.
Other workshop leaders included District 6 Area Director for Organizing Danny Fetonte, District 6 Organizing Coordinator Sandy Rusher, District 7 Organizing Coordinators Kevin Mulligan and Jana Carr-Smith, District 13 Administrative Assistant to the Vice President Marge Kruger, and CWA Research Economist Patrick Hunt.
Organizing and bargaining first contracts at these lines of business - each the product of acquisitions by AT&T the last few years - follow a different set of rules as outlined by the negotiated Neutrality and Consent Election agreement.
Organizers also need to be prepared for every classic anti-union trick in the book and know how to document management violations of the NCE, the participants learned over the course of the three-day training workshop.
More than 200 members have now participated in special AT&T organizing institutes over the past two years, reported Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, who heads the union's organizing program.
Cohen and Communications and Technologies Vice President Ralph Maly jointly opened the institute and stressed that unionizing the non-union growth areas at AT&T are key to CWA's future effectiveness, and even survival, at AT&T. "There's no doubt that this company would like to be union-free, and their strategy is to try to contain us in the parts of the company that will shrink over time and keep us out of the growth jobs," Maly said.
The St. Louis institute put a special emphasis on organizing in wireless and local service businesses. "Our previous institutes focused almost entirely on broadband, and as a result we have had 27 campaigns at broadband with more in the works," he said.
The organizing effort at AT&T now is taking place against the backdrop of a massive breakup plan, which threatens the company's long-term success and which CWA is fighting on several fronts (see separate story). Assistant to the President George Kohl delivered a presentation at the institute on the implications of the restructure on CWA organizing efforts.
Other workshop leaders included District 6 Area Director for Organizing Danny Fetonte, District 6 Organizing Coordinator Sandy Rusher, District 7 Organizing Coordinators Kevin Mulligan and Jana Carr-Smith, District 13 Administrative Assistant to the Vice President Marge Kruger, and CWA Research Economist Patrick Hunt.