American Rights at Work honors Cingular Wireless for its partnership with the Communications Workers of America to truly respect workers' freedom to make their own choice about forming a union.

Cingular Wireless proves that even in a highly competitive industry like telecommunications, sound labor policies and financial success aren't mutually exclusive.  The nation's top wireless carrier has maintained its status as the industry leader while continuing to raise the bar on workers' rights.  The Atlanta-based cellular service provider rejects knee-jerk hostile labor relations practices, and instead invests its energies toward respecting its employees, their rights, and their decisions on whether to join a union. 

Cingular negotiated its first union contract with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in 2000.  By pledging to remain neutral in employee organizing efforts, Cingular does not interfere with its employees rights to choose union representation.  The company even instructs managers to treat CWA with the same respect given to other business partners.

"CWA is an important strategic partner for Cingular," said Rick Bradley, Cingular's Executive Vice President of Human Resources.  "We share mutual goals and values, enabling us to continue operating successfully in a very competitive environment."

As a result of this neutrality agreement, Cingular technicians, customer service representatives, and retail sales workers have gained the benefits of a union contract without having adversarial relations with their employer in order to do so. 

When the company merged with AT&T in 2004, Cingular demonstrated its commitment to its employees and their union by extending the agreement to cover former AT&T employees, resulting in approximately 17,000 employees choosing union representation in less than a year.  In total, nearly 39,000 Cingular employees are now represented by CWA in 35 states across the country. 

Formed in April 2000, Cingular is a joint venture between the U.S. wireless division of AT&T (formerly SBC) and BellSouth.  Cingular provides the nation's largest wireless digital voice and data network.