CWA Member Sharon Harrison Addresses Senate Committee
03/16/09
On March 10, the day the Employee
Free Choice Act was introduced in Congress, CWA members from
around the country joined 350 other workers on Capitol Hill to
show their support for the Employee Free Choice Act.
The day began with a standing-room-only hearing on the bill. The Senate Health, Employment, Labor and Pension Committee was bolstered by the strong presence of union members dressed in work uniforms who were seated in the gallery. The crowd cheered statements by Senators Harkin (IA), Sanders (VT), Brown (OH) and Casey (PA) as they spoke of the need for the Employee Free Choice Act to fight income disparities and restore the economy by preserving good paying jobs.
The hearing featured the testimony of CWA member Sharon Harrison of Virginia, who spoke of the power that the Employee Free Choice Act would give to workers:
Before we had our union, favoritism was a problem. Raises didn’t depend on your job performance but whether your manager liked you. That all changed in 2005 when Cingular Wireless, now AT&T Mobility, took over. Cingular had agreed with CWA to remain neutral, to let workers make up our own minds and to recognize the union if a majority signed up. Because of that agreement, we weren’t afraid anymore that managers would retaliate against us.
You can watch a video of the entire hearing or download a copy of Sharon’s testimony. Sharon’s testimony begins at 152:19 in the video.
Sharon’s story, along with those of other CWA members, is also available from our Workers’ Stories library.