CWU scales up Carphone fight

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is planning to leaflet all staff at Carphone Warehouse stores about Carphone’s alleged anti-unionism. The CWU will also picket Carphone’s Wednesbury plant in the coming weeks, it said.

The CWU claims two Carphone staff have been unfairly dismissed for organising a CWU recruitment drive. It is campaigning for their reinstatement. The CWU said it will mobilise all  CWU branches in the UK to leaflet all Carphone stores.

A spokesman said: “We are doing this so staff and customers know how Carphone is systematically trying to remove union activity from within the company.”

Carphone has refuted the CWU’s claims, saying all disciplinary action is purely performance-related. A spokesman said: “We do not and have not disciplined anyone simply because they are a member of a union. This is not the way Carphone operates and such allegations are false and without foundation.”

The CWU is also liaising with Indian union “Unites Professionals” for potential activity within Carphone Warehouse call centres in India. It has enlisted UK-based human rights lawyer Amed Anwar, it said.