Comcast Fires Worker for Speaking Out

Will Goodo, a longtime employee at Comcast, was fired after he testified before the Oakland City Council and at a Workers' Rights Board hearing in December on how the cable giant violates workers' rights and thwarts unions.

Goodo was working as a dispatcher at a nonunion Comcast facility when he joined the International Human Rights Day actions in Oakland to speak out for fair treatment for Comcast workers. A Navy veteran, he had worked at Comcast for 10 years.

CWA and the rest of the labor community in Oakland and Alameda County are rallying around Goodo, calling on citizens to contact Comcast's East Bay Division vice president and demand Goodo's reinstatement. CWA has filed unfair labor practice charges over Goodo's firing.

Meanwhile, area labor activists are celebrating a victory in the first round of their campaign to require that franchises doing business with the city of Oakland, including Comcast, allow union organizing by card check without employer interference. The City Council backed the measure in a preliminary vote, with a final vote scheduled as the CWA went to press.

Since Comcast took over AT&T Broadband, the company has been systematically working to strip workers of their union protections. Comcast stalled contract negotiations for years, orchestrated decertification elections and routinely fired, harassed and intimidated union supporters.

Comcast has been charged with hundreds of violations of federal labor law. Labor leaders say Goodo's firing is just the most recent example of how federal labor law fails to safeguard workers' rights.

But Comcast executives know the benefits of contracts for themselves. CEO Brian Roberts has a longterm contract paying at least $10 million per year plus substantial benefits, and other top executives have similar contracts with the company.

For more information, go to www.comcastwatch.com.