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Comcast terminates employees for unionizing { March 19 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.thesentinel.com/320376027073113.phphttp://www.thesentinel.com/320376027073113.php
Montgomery County Sentinel
March 19, 2004
Fired Comcast Employees Fear Publicity
Allegedly Terminated for Unionizing, Workers Fail to Show for Perez & Leventhal Press Conference
By Justyn Kopack
Special to the Sentinel
Three former Comcast employees were no-shows at a Tuesday press conference in which County Councilmembers George Leventhal and Tom Perez had planned to voice their support for Comcast employees wanting to unionize. The press conference was canceled as a result.
The employees were fired by Comcast in what they say is the company's retaliation for the their desire to unionize. The fired workers and several others still employed with Comcast claim they have been unfairly targeted with intimidation tactics and disciplinary warnings for trying to form a union with the Communication Workers of America.
Leventhal and Perez have said employees have a right to decide whether they want to form a union.
Former Comcast technician Stephen White, who did attend the press conference, said one former employee couldn't attend because he had a family emergency.
White wasn't sure why the others didn't show up, but said they may be worried about retaliation from Comcast.
"They have aspirations of trying to get another job with another cable company [and] Comcast might try to blackmail them all together," he said. White, who has been outspoken about his desire to form a union since fall 2002, was fired March 1 after working for Comcast in Silver Spring since 1999.
Comcast denies any intimidation tactics have been used to prevent workers from unionizing, and no Comcast representatives attended the would-be press conference. The company is the county's largest cable provider and formed a franchise agreement with the county in 2000.
At the press conference, reporters were handed a list of names and phone numbers of about 12 current and former Comcast employees. The paper listed the pro-union efforts each employee had made and the disciplinary action each had received.
The reporters were initially told they could contact the people on the list for comments, but the handouts were quickly snatched back when word came that the press conference was canceled. The people on the list were no longer willing to talk to the press about Comcast's anti-union efforts, county public relations staff members said.
Terese Bouey, an assistant director in the AFL-CIO communications department who attended the press conference, said the employees change of heart demonstrates how scared Comcast workers are of retaliation from their employer.
"The fear factor is that great," said Bouey, who works through the AFL-CIO with the CWA. "[But] people can't be fired for exercising their rights in this country."
White has filed a charge against Comcast with the National Labor Relations Board and has been working with Bouey and the AFL-CIO to speak out against what they have called Comcast's "aggressive anti-worker campaign."
White said Comcast management punished him with unsubstantiated disciplinary action, humiliated him in front of his co-workers and called him into one-on-one meetings in which he was interrogated for talking to his co-workers about forming a union.
He said management tried to bribe him and other employees with better job positions in order to induce them to abandon the unionization efforts. He said technicians received written warnings for "little, small infractions" that would normally go unnoticed or not result in strong discipline.
"Not calling your supervisor when your shift was over, stuff like that," he said. "Just really petty violations."
These "write ups" were Comcast's effort to create a paper trail of legitimate reasons for firing pro-union employees, White and Bouey said.
Comcast employees were scheduled to vote last June on whether or not to join the CWA, but the vote was called off after employees claimed there could not be a fair election because too many of them had been intimidated by Comcast.
On July 31, Leventhal and Perez and other community leaders held a workers' rights hearing with employees in the county. As a result of that meeting, a document called the Community Standard in Support of the Freedom to Form Unions and a Voice at Work was formed.
The Standard outlines guiding principles for companies doing business in the county when the companies' employees wish to form unions. It states, among seven total provisions, that employers will not punish or "intimidate, harass, or threaten" workers directly or indirectly for trying to form unions.
Earlier this week, Leventhal sent a copy of the Standard to a Comcast representative he has been working with, asking for Comcast to abide by the Standard. He had not heard back as of Tuesday afternoon.
— Brendan Armbruster contributed to this report
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