A Night-and-Day Change at Call Center

Teresa Joyce and her colleagues at Cingular Wireless — formerly AT&T Wireless — are a textbook case for why the Employee Free Choice Act is needed.

When AT&T Wireless owned their call center in Lebanon, Va., the company fought workers every step of the way as they tried to form a union. Then Cingular took over, a company that has agreed to remain neutral in organizing drives and recognize unions when a majority of employees sign cards seeking representation and negotiate contracts without stalling tactics.

In effect, Cingular already follows the basic tenets of the pending Employee Free Choice Act while growing and posting good profits. In 2005, the company recognized Joyce and her coworkers as members of CWA Local 2204. "Management even helped us arrange a cookout at the call center to celebrate," Joyce told a U.S. House labor subcommittee at a hearing on the bill, describing the stark differences between her new and old employers.

Four years ago, faced with costly health care benefits, stagnant wages — as little as a 2-cent hourly raise some years — and feeling little respect from supervisors at AT&T Wireless, workers began an organizing drive.

"I knew it didn't have to be this way," Joyce told the panel. "For 23 years, my husband had mined the Appalachian Mountains and was a proud member of the United Mine Workers. He was able to bargain for better wages, health insurance and improved safety equipment. As a result, we were able to live a comfortable, middle-class life and raise three happy and healthy children. I knew the difference a union could make and I knew that to improve conditions at the call center we, too, would need a union."

Their organizing efforts quickly triggered a campaign of intimidation from above. "Our supervisors constantly threatened that AT&T Wireless would leave our town and that we would lose our jobs," she said. "They claimed our union dues would be so enormous we may actually need two jobs."

Supervisors tore down union flyers and stalked union meetings off the property. Though workers weren't fired outright, Joyce said management's intense pressure and trumped-up charges of workplace violations drove some people to quit.

Still, union activists pressed on. When they learned that Cingular was going to purchase AT&T Wireless, they asked executives in a conference call how employees would be treated. She and her colleagues were "overjoyed," Joyce said, with the company's assurances that management would respect workers' right to organize.

As the merger progressed, Joyce said the harassment and intimidation stopped. "We were free to distribute union literature during our break and were even allowed to set up a table in the break room with information on CWA. We made posters, put out flyers and made phone calls about the benefits of joining a union and having a say on wages and work conditions.

"Today, supervisors treat us with respect," Joyce said. "We've been able to bargain for fair wage increases and affordable health care benefits. Our wages are now determined by a wage scale, not favoritism. We have more vacation days and — more importantly — we have job security."