T-Mobile Workers Fight Takes Center Stage at Customer Service Conference

Three current T-Mobile USA workers and a union supporter who was fired by the company outlined the company’s aggressive anti-union tactics to participants at CWA’s Customer Service Professionals Conference.

The 130 customer service professionals attending the session signed on to the campaign to support T-Mobile workers. They leafleted outside San Diego T-Mobile stores and sent postcards to Rene Obermann, CEO of parent company Deutsche Telekom. Participants also collected $600 to help the fired worker, while leaders of ver.di, the union representing German workers at DT and T-Mobile, are pressing the company to rehire him.

Ado Wilhem, divisional director of mobile communications for ver.di, and Kornelia Dubbel, works councilor for Deutsche Telekom Customer Service, updated conference participants on the campaign to end the double standard at DT.

Also on the agenda: a presentation by Cornell University Professor Rosemary Batt, a leading expert on call center work. Batt said a critical shift in the call center industry, which employs 3.6 million U.S. workers, is a move toward home-based employment that allows companies to take even greater advantage of vulnerable workers.

Batt estimates more than 300,000 Americans are now working as low-paid, no-benefits call-takers from home.

Conference participants also heard from CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill, who stressed that all members benefit when CWA grows. “We must not only effectively represent our existing customer service professionals but build power by organizing more customer service workers,” she said.

Keep updated on the T-Mobile campaign at www.LoweringTheBarForUs. org  and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/loweringthebar.