During yesterday’s Republican-dominated House Education and Workforce hearing on proposed rules changes by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), working men and women packed the hearing. Their message that workers’ right to join  a union should  be protected was repeated by the Democratic members of the committee in sharp questioning of the mostly anti-worker witnesses.

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) read into the record the worker testimony from William Reitz, a T-Mobile USA technician who, along with other techs from Long Island, filed for union election in May. In response, T-Mobile has engaged in frivolous claims and delay tactics at the NLRB.  T-Mobile has used the time it has gained by filing charges at the NLRB to harass and intimidate the workers–supposed to provide ”the facts” to the employees. (See video above)

In the statement, Reitz says T-Mobile’s behavior “is an example of the desperate need for change.” 

They have used delay tactics to give the managers time to coordinate attacks on the union we are trying to join, threaten our jobs and our benefits, and even try to gerrymander our bargaining unit for the election.  After several months of this verbal and emotional assault, I still stand firm in my commitment to gaining a voice at work.  What I am asking for is a fair chance to vote.

After Bishop read the statement, he strongly criticized T-Mobile management. He asked the former Bush-era NLRB Chairman Peter Schaumber, one of the witnesses, if T-Mobile’s latest complaint that Communications Workers of America-TU (CWA-TU), a partnership of CWA and the German union ver.di wasn’t a qualified labor organization was frivolous. Schaumber admitted it was.