AT&T Mobility Retail Sales Workers Organize in Puerto Rico

In Puerto Rico, another 376 AT&T Mobility retail store and sales support workers won representation by CWA Local 3010 through majority sign up. The former Centennial Wireless workers join more than 350 former Centennial workers at AT&T Mobility in Puerto Rico who have joined CWA this year.

Securing good health care benefits and the ability to take work breaks are among the workers' top issues, said local organizer Javier Sepulveda. "They wanted to know how CWA could help them, and we got the message across effectively by having members from AT&T talk with them one on one," he said. A key part of the campaign’s success was maintaining one-on-one contact with the workers, listening to their concerns, and letting them know the value of a union contract, said District 3 Staff Representative Jorge Rodriguez who led the campaign.

Volunteer local union stewards Melvin Nazario, Rolando Hernandez and Elix Morales met with activists regularly to help them build worker support. "Organizing is a duty for all local unions," said Local president Rafael Castro-Torres. "It is what we must do to grow our union and is the only way to create better contracts and a stronger labor movement," he said.

This year, some 350 AT&T Mobility workers from Centennial have joined CWA through majority sign up this year in separate campaigns in Alabama, Indiana, and Michigan.