So there I am getting pissed off with Vodafone after they monkey with my contract terms mid-contract, and refuse recognition for Connect in the UK and CWU in South Africa, and my contract comes up, so I ring them and say I’m off to nice unionised O2 in protest. They say they’ll put a PAC code in the post and I think no more of it.

And then this happens, and this. Result! And then the retentions department ring up and really professionally grovel to ask me to stay, knock a third off my bill and offer me a swanky new HTC 3G/SatNav/WiFi blogo-phone for free (iPhone, schmiPhone). Result!

Congratulations to the Connect and CWU teams on two excellent results, but I think we all know who it was that really dragged them to the table…

The Register have an interesting piece about the current breakdown in negotiations at Vodafone, where the union Connect have a member base of over half the Northern technical bargaining unit, and are trying for recognition by the statutory route (or as the employer prefers to call it, the ‘over my dead body route’).

Interesting to see though that Vodafone are not averse to recognising unions in Germany and Ireland, just at home in the UK. It’s the reverse of the even more anti-UK-union T-Mobile (part of Deutsche Telekom), who also have a deal back in Germany.

My contract with Vodafone is up this month. I’ve always avoided T-Mobile as I knew they were a nasty bunch on the employment and unions front, but if Vodafone aren’t a lot better, now might be time to leave them. Shame, as they do have a good service, and in many places seem to have the best reception (the only network to get any signal at all at last year’s TUC in the Brighton centre). However O2 are unionised (and have nattier phones) so I may be off there next month, and dropping Vodafone a quick letter to let them know.

Hat tip: uk computer and telephone workers union