Working In These Times
A Labor Day Reminder of CREDO’s Own Credibility Gap…
A poster for this weekend's "Friends of America Rally," mostly brought to you by corporate America.
By Steve Early and Rand Wilson
The mad scramble among cell-phone companies for increased market share has created plenty of consumer confusion about the merits of various "calling plans." Now, thanks to a re-seller of mobile phone minutes called CREDO Mobile, the politics of which provider to choose has gotten muddled as well, for supporters of progressive causes.
CREDO markets itself as the cellular company with a conscience. Sign up today, say CREDO ads in publications like The Nation, so you can "support the values you believe in." Every call you make generates a small part of the millions of dollars the company gives to Wellstone Action, Human Rights Watch, Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and Greenpeace.
In West Virginia this weekend -- to its credit -- the company has been leading the PR charge against a cleverly packaged "Friends of America Rally" down in Logan County. It's a Labor Day fest for the Right, featuring appearances by Sean Hannity and over-the-hill rocker Ted "Cat Scrath Fever" Nugent, plus a speech against global warming by one of its leading deniers, Lord Christopher Moncton.
Not surprisingly, the most enthusiastic local sponsor is Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy. Big Don has posted a YouTube video inviting all West Virginians (including the 10% currently unemployed) to attend the rally so they can "learn how environmental extremists...are trying to destroy jobs."
Massey is, as CREDO points out, "the most egregious violator of the Clean Water Act in history," not to mention a notorious union-buster and arch foe of the United Mine Workers.
The UMW is sponsoring its own competing event in West Virginia. But without Hank Williams, Jr. as a headliner, the union is unlikely to attract a crowd anywhere near the 25,000 expected at the sold-out "Friends of America" event.
And this is where CREDO comes in. It has developed a sophisticated "Mobile Action" network of customers who want to use their cell phones for social change. CREDO, along with the Natural Resources Defense Council, is rallying them against the other major corporate sponsor of the event: Verizon Wireless (VZW).
In e-mail messages and ads, CREDO network members are being exhorted to contact VZW president and CEO Lowell McAdam and demand that he "issue a public apology and immediately withdraw all support from this extremist, anti-environmental rally."
Like Massey Energy, Verizon Wireless has been rampantly anti-union (only 50 out of VZW's 50,000 workers are organized and management has been repeatedly cited for unfair labor practices).
But there's no small irony in CREDO "calling out" Verizon Wireless. CREDO itself is also completely non-union! And not only does it knock, with good reason, VZW, it also takes regular aim at AT&T Mobility, the one wireless company that is unionized.
CREDO got its start as Working Assets, re-selling long-distance service by the notoriously anti-union Sprint. Now it's doing the same thing with wireless, marketing itself as a bankroller of every kind of rights movement -- except the workers' rights one.
Meanwhile, it tries to get progressive customers to switch, not just from VZW (a move long recommended by labor) but from AT&T as well, where more than 35,000 technicians, customer service reps, and retail store personnel belong to the Communications Workers of America.
So, on Labor Day, if you want to use your cell phone for a cause-oriented call, by all means dial Lowell McAdam and give him a piece of your mind about VZW's strange bedfellows down in West Virginia.
But, if you want to do a mitzvah for the cause of labor, sign up for AT&T Mobility and show your support for its unionized workforce.
Steve Early worked for 27 years as CWA organizer in the northeast and was involved in strikes and organizing campaigns at AT&T. Rand Wilson works for the AFL-CIO on a joint CWA and IBEW organizing initiative with Verizon workers.
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Comments
Dear Brother Early,
I really don’t see the point of your objection.
Yes, CREDO is non union - as is the rest of the cellphone industry outside of ATT Mobility.
This is because of the failures of your union, the Communications Workers of America, to organize the industry.
Has CWA tried to organize CREDO - or it’s predecessor company Working Assets?
If they did and CREDO and/or Working Assets defeated their organizing drives, that’s one thing.
If the CWA didn’t bother to organize them, that’s a whole different ballgame.
The owner of CREDO is campaigning against this far right rally in West Virginia, that is to be applauded, encouraged and supported.
But, as far as changing our cell phone providers because of the CWA’s two decades of organizing failures, that’s a horse of a different color my friend.
I personally use Sprint - I was originally a Nextel customer, because their cell phones work very well in the Midtown Manhattan hirises I work in (I’m a union carpenter who installs office furniture, metal and glass office partitions and trade show exhibits) - when Sprint brought them, they inherited me as a customer and, because of their low rates and great service, they have kept my business.
As for Verizon Wireless, they are the best cell phone provider in New York City - their phones were the only ones that worked during the August 2003 blackout - the only reason I haven’t20switched to them is because Sprint is cheaper and the price difference is big enough to outweigh the benefits of switching.
As for ATT Mobility - when I got my first cell phone in 1997, I was an ATT Wireless customer - their service is very bad and they are very expensive, which is why I switched to Nextel in 2003.
So no, I’m not going to switch carriers just because the CWA has been unwilling to launch serious organizing drives at Verizon Wireless or Sprint - or at CREDO, a liberal company that just might agree to voluntary recognition with just a bit of pressure.
I don’t see any CWA picket lines around any of those phone companies myriad offices around Manhattan, nor are Sprint, Verizon Wireless or CREDO on the AFL-CIO Boycott List - so I’m not going to be guilt tripped into changing phone companies and paying more for inferior service because the CWA leadership let their industry get deunionized.
I’m 41 years old, so I can remember a time when the phone industry was 100% union - it’s mostly non union now, and CWA didn’t do a damned thing to stop that deunionization.
Since you were a part of the CWA leadership during those years of union decay, perhaps you can enlighten us on the inside story of how the CWA leadership that you were a part of let that huge industry slip through their fingers without a fight?
That would be a whole hell of a lot more useful to labor than you being an uncompensated pitchperson for ATT Mobility!
GREGORY A. BUTLER
As a progressive political activist and former union member, I think this analysis is flawed and incomplete.
I’m surprised that CWA seems to be carrying water for AT&T here. Sure, AT&T Mobility is unionized…but AT&T’s PAC also maxed out to the Bush-Cheney campaign twice, thus electing the most anti-worker administration in recent memory. They then also donated to McCain—yeah, that’s how you’re going to get progress for workers rights, with McCain as President. Not.
Not to mention AT&T’s collusion with the Bush Administration on illegally wiretapping all of us a few years back.
I’m a long-time customer of CREDO and love their service—and the progressive causes they fund. In fact, this summer (I can’t remember which month) I ordered one of the activism letters in my phone bill, which went to both of my Senators asking them to support EFCA. Hmmm, did AT&T provide the same opportunity to their customers? I’m guessing…not.
Is AT&T fighting hard for the public option in health care, on which I’ve seen plenty of activism from CREDO in recent months, and that’s really essential to working peoples’ future economic well-being? Nope, I didn’t think so.
So before you get all riled up, you might want to step back & look at the bigger picture. To people who think broadly about advancing progressive change in this country, CREDO is a far far better choice than the rightward-leaning, Republican-friendly AT&T.