"Helping Them Get a Union Helps Us Too"

CWA members who are supporting T-Mobile workers in their campaign to organize know that they are helping themselves as well as the workers.

“It gives me a lot of satisfaction when I’m able to turn a T-Mobile worker into a union supporter,” says Tammy Chaffee, Local 6402. “Helping them get a union helps us, too, because it will make it more difficult for AT&T, Verizon and our other telecom employers to use non-union companies as a wedge to drive down our wages and benefits during bargaining.”

Chaffee works as a customer service rep at an AT&T call center in Wichita, Kan., and usually meets twice a week with T-Mobile workers. She leaflets at a T-Mobile call center in Wichita, makes home visits and supports workers in setting up an inside organizing committee.

On top of that, Chaffee often makes the three-hour drive to Oklahoma City to talk with T-Mobile retail store workers. She figures she contacts between 30 to 70 workers each month and most sign interest cards. “They are generally eager to open up and talk about their concerns when they find out that I’m doing the same kind of work they do,” she says.

Local 2201’s Charles “Bubba” Craddick, a Verizon technician, says some T-Mobile workers he contacts are a little suspicious of him at first. “They want to know why someone from the competition wants to help them, like I have some ulterior motive,” he says. “They relax when I tell them about the issues we share in common in our industry, and what we have been able to accomplish as union members at Verizon.”

Craddick is supporting T-Mobile workers in Richmond, Va., as they build a committee and he created a Facebook page so workers can easily talk to each other. “Today’s social media technology really helps out in organizing because it’s often hard to get everyone together at the same time because of their varying shifts,” he says.

Candace Harrison, a T-Mobile customer service rep in Albuquerque, is a big union supporter who’s encouraging her coworkers to join her. She’s been a union-represented reservations agent at Southwest Airlines, and a Teamster truck driver.

“I know what we can accomplish with CWA representation,” Harrison says.