Peter Braunston
CWA
Cingular Wireless
Kissimmee, Florida
Wanted a Union, Got a Union
Peter Braunston of Kissimmee, Fla., had a rare experience: When he and his fellow workers wanted a union, their employer actually played fair.
It gave him a preview of what could happen in U.S. workplaces around the nation if the were the law. This legislation would give workers who seek to organize into unions the choice of majority sign-up—so if a majority of employees in a workplace signed cards stating they wanted to be represented by a union, they would get their union, plain and simple.
That would be a big change. Currently, companies control how workers organize. The company and not workers can decide whether to recognize the workers' union with majority signup or to force workers into an election process, which companies can easily delay or completely derail.
The Employee Free Choice Act would give to millions of workers the choice of how they form their union—the same choice that Braunston and his fellow employees had.
In 2005, Braunston was a retail sales consultant in a suburban Philadelphia store for the anti-union AT&T Wireless. The company was bought out by the much different Cingular
Wireless, which had been unionized for some time. After Braunston and others in the former AT&T Wireless stores found themselves on the Cingular Wireless payroll, they contacted the Communications Workers of America ().
Most employers launch a frontal attack on workers seeking a union, but not Cingular Wireless.
"There were six or seven of us working in the store," Braunston recalls. "When each of us was free, we talked with Harry Arnold, who was an organizer with CWA. He told us about what the union could do for us. And managers did and not interfere. So for those of us who were working in the store, if you wanted to join the union, fine, and if not, fine. We decided."
In late 2005, employees signed cards, if they so chose, stating that they wanted to organize into the union. "I filled out a card and by January, we were organized," Braunston says. "It was a real simple process."
He now contrasts that process with the ordeals of most other workers who seek to join a union. "I've heard stories of what people have gone through and all the negativity when they try to organize," he notes.
Since then, Braunston and his family have moved to Florida where he now works at the AT&T Mobility store in Orlando, but he's still a proud member of CWA. "My experience with the union has been nothing but positive," he remarks.
The union difference for Braunston was dramatic. "It came down to the fact that I had two young children," he explains. "Before we got the union and when I was working part-time, the cost of my health care benefits was about $400 a month. When I became a full-time employee, it was down to $200. But when the union came in, it dropped down to just $40 per month."
He adds, "$360 more in your pocket every month is a significant pay raise—and besides that, we had two guaranteed pay raises a year."
Another advantage of the union, according to Braunston, is that "it levels the playing field. Everyone has to play by the rulebook. Before, if you didn't agree with something management did, you couldn't do anything about it. But with the union, there's a grievance process so there's something you could do."
While Braunston was among the lucky few workers who didn't need the Employee Free Choice Act, he strongly supports it for the vast majority who do. "It would let workers decide about the union," he says. "They could go on their own, talk among themselves, choose for themselves whether they want to unionize. They wouldn't be exposed to negativity from management or threatened on the job.
"It would mean that more companies have to start paying their people fairly and giving them benefits. It would take a lot of the worries away from workers."
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