DALLAS, May 19, 2015 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — When you see the driver next to you looking at their phone, it’s no longer safe to assume they’re texting. New research¹ from AT&T* shows nearly 4-in-10 smartphone users tap into social media while driving. Almost 3-in-10 surf the net. And surprisingly, 1-in-10 video chat.

7-in-10 people engage in smartphone activities while driving. Texting and emailing are still the most prevalent. But other smartphone activity use behind the wheel is now common. Among social platforms, Facebook tops the list, with more than a quarter of those polled using the app while driving. About 1-in-7 said they’re on Twitter behind the wheel.

AT&T will expand the It Can Wait^® campaign from a focus on texting while driving to include other smartphone driving distractions that have emerged as our relationships with our devices have changed.

“When we launched It Can Wait five years ago, we pleaded with people to realize that no text is worth a life,” said Lori Lee, AT&T’s global marketing officer. “The same applies to other smartphone activities that people are doing while driving. For the sake of you and those around you, please keep your eyes on the road, not on your phone.”

Smartphone activities people say they do while driving include:

• Text² (61%)
• Email² (33%)
• Surf the net (28%)
• Facebook³ (27%)
• Snap a selfie/photo (17%)
• Twitter³ (14%)
• Instagram³ (14%)
• Shoot a video (12%)
• Snapchat³ (11%)
• Video chat (10%)

Other unsettling findings include:

• 62% keep their smartphones within easy reach while driving.⁴
• 30% of people who post to Twitter while driving do it “all the time.”
• 22% who access social networks while driving cite addiction as a reason.
• Of those who shoot videos behind the wheel, 27% think they can do it safely while driving.

AT&T will use the survey findings to help drive awareness of the dangers of smartphone use behind the wheel, and to encourage life-saving behavior change. It will collaborate with social platforms to share the message, and will launch a nationwide virtual reality tour this summer to help people understand that it’s not possible to drive safely while using a smartphone.

Twitter will collaborate with AT&T to share messages on their platform about the dangers of smartphone use behind the wheel.

Samsung, Bose and Google will support the immersive tour experience, which will be delivered through Samsung Gear VR, with premium sound from Bose QuietComfort^® 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling^® Headphones. Google Cardboard will make it possible for people to use their own smartphones to see the 3D virtual reality program.

Since its launch in 2010, the It Can Wait campaign has:

• Helped drive awareness of the dangers of texting while driving to about 90% for all audiences surveyed.
• Inspired more than 6.5 million pledges not to text and drive.
• Worked with departments of transportation in Texas, Kentucky and other states on research that suggests a correlation between It Can Wait campaign activities and a reduction in crashes.

Visit www.ItCanWait.com to learn more.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

1 Research commissioned by AT&T and conducted by Braun Research. Polled 2,067 people in the U.S. aged 16-65 who use their smartphone and drive at least once a day. Additional information available here.

2 Read, send or reply.

3 View or post.

4 In their hand, lap or cup holder, or on the passenger seat or dash.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) helps millions of people and businesses around the globe stay connected through leading wireless, high-speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. We’re helping people mobilize their worlds with state-of-the-art communications, entertainment services and amazing innovations like connected cars and devices for homes, offices and points in between. Our U.S. wireless network offers customers the nation’s strongest LTE signal and the nation’s most reliable 4G LTE network. We offer the best global wireless coverage. We’re improving how our customers stay entertained and informed with AT&T U-verse^® TV and High Speed Internet services. And businesses worldwide are serving their customers better with AT&T’s mobility and highly secure cloud solutions.

Additional information about AT&T products and services is available at http://about.att.com. Follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/att and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/att.

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FRESNO, Calif., May 18, 2015 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — On May 14, 2015, the California Court of Appeal in Fresno unanimously declared the Mandatory Mediation and Conciliation (MMC) Statute unconstitutional and set aside the California Agricultural Labor Relation Board’s order to force a “collective bargaining agreement” and to impose the UFW on Gerawan and its employees.

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The decision holds that the “inequality and arbitrariness of the MMC process improperly delegates legislative authority to an unelected state agency. Calling the MMC statute “the very antithesis of equal protection,” the Court held that it unconstitutionally mandates “the imposition of a collective bargaining agreement by administrative edict” based on “a distinct, unequal, individualized set of rules” for each individual employer.

In a 58-page opinion, the Court held: “As the present case illustrates, where a union has arguably abandoned the employees but later returns to invoke the MMC process, that situation may create a crisis of representation.” The Court ruled that Gerawan Farming “should have been given an opportunity to prove abandonment to the Board once UFW requested the MMC process,” concluding that the Board “abused its discretion” when it compelled Gerawan into this forced contracting process “without properly considering Gerawan’s claim of union abandonment.”

“This is a significant victory for our employees, our family, and the entire industry. The Court’s ruling vindicates our argument that no state agency should be able to unilaterally impose a contract on workers without a vote or force it on employers without their consent,” said the company’s co-owner, Dan Gerawan. “This decision is a significant win for all agricultural workers, who justifiably deserve the freedom to choose representatives to speak for them at the bargaining table.”

After winning a contested election in 1990 and being certified by the ALRB in 1992, the UFW “disappeared from the scene for nearly two decades.” The Court continued: “It is clear that the employees’ right to a representative of their own choosing would be seriously jeopardized in the situation of abandonment by a union where, as here, the absentee union suddenly reappeared on the scene to demand the MMC process.”

As the Court held, under the MMC process, “a collective bargaining agreement will be imposed whether the employees want it or not; and it will be imposed with the formerly absent union, whether the employees want its representation or not.”

The Court concluded that Gerawan was permitted to raise the UFW’s abandonment as a defense to this forced contracting scheme, “because only that result will preserve the ALRA’s purpose of protecting the employees’ right to choose.”

Thousands of Gerawan employees successfully petitioned for the right to hold an election to determine whether to oust the UFW. That election was held 18 months ago. Though the Board has yet to count the ballots, it imposed the MMC contract after the election. Both the UFW and the General Counsel of the Board sought unsuccessfully to compel enforcement of the contract, which would have forced workers to pay dues or fees to the UFW, or be fired.

Rejecting the Board’s argument that employees could mount a decertification effort against a heretofore-absent union, the Court held that “[r]ealistically, a decertification option would often be too late to stop the MMC process.”

The Court awarded that the state of California pay Gerawan’s costs for bringing this appeal.

You can find copies of the Court’s decision here, and more background information here on the ALRB’s efforts to force a contract on Gerawan employees before ballots have been counted in the decertification election.