America, What Happened?: Cingular Worker Briefs Candidates on Union Rights

More than 25 congressional candidates from around the nation learned what a difference card check and neutrality makes to workers trying to organize a union when Local 13000 member Peter Braunston addressed a candidate forum in Washington, D.C., organized by the AFL-CIO and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Braunston spoke of the ease with which he and colleagues near Philadelphia gained recognition by Cingular after signing cards last November. It's the same process as outlined in the pending Employee Free Choice Act, the organizing bill that is likely to become law once there is a pro-worker majority in Congress. (See workers' rights story,)

"We are thrilled that we joined a union," Braunston said at the forum Sept. 13 at AFL-CIO headquarters. "We now have a voice in our destiny and are able to realize better wages though organization."

A substitute teacher, Braunston said he went to work for Cingular part-time because he could not afford health insurance for himself, his wife and two young sons. When he came under the union contract in February 2006, his health care expenses dropped from $400 to $40 per month.

Other workers at the forum, an emergency room nurse and a manufacturing worker, spoke of the firings and intimidation they endured in traditional organizing campaigns to join AFSCME and the Sheet Metal Workers.