They endured weekly mandatory captive audience meetings in the basement of their Lexington Avenue MetroPCS store, tight monitoring from management and even a visit from T-Mobile U.S. CEO John Legere and other top executives who trekked from Bellevue, Wash., headquarters to the Harlem store. But this week, the workers voted 7–1 to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

With a new website—TMobileWorkersUnited.org—workers at T-Mobile US are connecting with each other to build strength in their drive for workplace justice and respect.

Working with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), T-Mobile Workers United (TU) is an alliance of hundreds of call center representatives, retail associates and technicians who are standing up to discuss the issues and challenges they face at the new T-Mobile US, a merger of T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS.

T-Mobile, the telecom company that last year closed seven call centers in the United States and shipped more than 3,300 jobs overseas, is running its remaining U.S. call center operations with abusive and intimidating tactics, T-Mobile workers at the company’s Charleston, S.C., call center told a workers' rights hearing (see video, below) last week.

Workers at a number of T-Mobile (owned by Deutsche Telekom) call centers are mobilizing to win a voice at work with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and have been met with a fierce anti-union campaign.

T-Mobile, the telecom company that earlier this year closed seven call centers in the United States and shipped more than 3,300 jobs overseas, is running its remaining U.S. call center operations under what workers describe as a “climate of tyranny,” says Lothar Schroeder of German union ver.di, which represents workers at Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s parent company. Schroeder spoke with Reuters. 

T-Mobile will close seven U.S. call centers with some 3,300 workers, a decision the Communications Workers of America (CWA) says “harms workers and communities.”

A complaint filed today with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) describes how Deutsche Telekom has engaged in anti-union activity in the United States that violates the organization’s guidelines for multinational enterprises.

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.

More than 500 workers from ver.di, the German telecommunications workers union, today descended on Deutsche Telekom’s global annual shareholders’ meeting in Cologne  to demand  the company ensure its American employees at T-Mobile USA the same rights enjoyed by its German workforce.

The announcement over the weekend that AT&T is buying T-Mobile USA could benefit both consumers and employees. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the deal offers tens of thousands of T-Mobile USA employees the opportunity to benefit from the pro-worker policies of AT&T, the only unionized U.S. wireless company. Some 42,000 AT&T mobility employees are represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Trumka adds:

For T-Mobile USA workers who want a voice in their workplace, this acquisition can provide a fresh start with T-Mobile management.