Chicago Veteran Returns From War Only To Fight For His Rights On The Job

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/10536

By Doug Cunningham

Jose Hill is a military veteran and member of IBEW in Chicago who has seen first-hand why workers need the Employee Free Choice Act. He says after fighting in Iraq he never expected to have to also fight for his rights back home in the USA working for Comcast.

: “In August of 2003, I returned after a year of duty fighting in Iraq - supposedly in the name of democracy - only to come home to fight for my own democracy at Comcast - the right to be in a union, to bargain collectively, without harassment, intimidation or discrimination. Even though I have a union contract, my wages are less than a Comcast employee working about 8 miles south of the Cortland Chicago facility where there is no collective bargaining agreement. Why? Because Comcast's bargaining tactics are to delay bargaining and to punish union employees who perform the same work by making proposals that pay less in wages and benefits - a scheme to discourage the non-union shops to organize."