Fighting Back: Religious Leaders Fight for Worker at Anti-Union Comcast

Putting their faith into action on behalf of a fired worker and others fighting for union rights at Comcast, religious leaders in Pennsylvania have banded together to put pressure on the Philadelphia-based cable giant.

The city's Jewish Labor Committee together with the AFL-CIO labor chaplain in Pennsylvania, Father Jack O'Malley, and other members of the faith community, created Religious Leaders for Justice at Comcast in 2004 and have been writing letters to the company and testifying at shareholder meetings since then.

Most recently, the group brought fired worker Will Goodo to Philadelphia to tell the story of losing his job while working with CWA to organize fellow Comcast dispatchers in Oakland, Calif.

"Meeting Mr. Goodo was a powerful experience," said Roz Spigel, director of the Philadelphia Jewish Labor Committee. "I think all the rabbis he met with have sent letters to Comcast."

While Goodo is from the West Coast, his case reverberates with the Philadelphia religious leaders, who have seen Comcast as a good neighbor in terms of charity but are upset about the company's attitude toward workers' rights and union organizing.

"Workers have a moral right to not feel intimidation at the workplace," O'Malley said, recalling his testimony at the 2004 Comcast shareholder meeting. "They have according to most faith traditions, and I would probably say all of them, the right to a voice at the workplace and the right to organize and collectively bargain."

Goodo was fired in January, 2006, about six weeks after testifying against the company at an Oakland City Council hearing on Comcast's cable franchise. Comcast claims he was fired because of a customer complaint, a problem both Goodo and the customer say never happened. The customer has even written a letter to dispute Comcast's version of events. The National Labor Relations Board — despite finding that the company lied — recently dismissed Goodo's case. CWA is appealing.

Whether or not he gets his job back, Goodo said he wants to "be a voice for all the people that can't speak up." He noted the personal irony of being fired after speaking his own mind. "I served my country from 17 and a half years in the Navy and I never thought I would come back to my own country and not have the freedom to say what I want to say," he said.

Spigel said the facts of the Goodo's firing have made religious leaders question Comcast's own code of ethics, and 100 leaders have signed a letter to that effect. "It appears as though there are some contradictions in the values they're espousing and the values they are demonstrating," she said.

During his November trip, Goodo spoke to groups of religious leaders, as well as students at Villanova University. He tried to meet with Comcast's human resources director, Charisse Lillie, but instead she sent a secretary to the lobby to pick up papers Goodo had brought with him.

O'Malley said the religious leaders met with Lillie twice earlier in their campaign but the company "broke off the relationship. They said we were too biased in favor of workers."

The reach of the Religious Leaders for Justice at Comcast is broadening to include people of faith across the country, O'Malley and Spigel said. "We're not going away," O'Malley said. "We have core people in every city and every area to stand side by side in our fight for workers."