CWA: T-Mobile Built Fake Union to Prevent Creation of a Real One Yes, T-Mobile gets a lot of PR traction by being cooler than AT&T and Verizon. But the company's style, sass, and dedication to consumers only goes so far, as we saw when the company opposed net neutrality rules and reclassification of ISPs under Title II (which consumer advocates say overwhelmingly helps consumers). Something else T-Mobile's progressive reputation doesn't extend to in the real world? Unions.

quote: CWA says that in June 2015, Brian Brueckman, a T-Mobile senior vice president, sent employees an e-mail announcing “another big step to ensure your voice is heard” by management—the nationwide rollout of a group called T-Voice, composed of employee “representatives” from each call center, selected every six months by the company. “T-Voice is your voice,” Brueckman wrote in his e-mail, the first of several messages to employees that CWA contends contradict federal labor rules. The new constructed "fake union," the CWA alleges, claims to operate like a union, but given it's run by company executives obviously wouldn't encourage much of a serious challenge to company policies. According to complaints filed by the National Labor Relations Board last year, T-Mobile stopped employees in Albuquerque from discussing unions at work; fired a worker in Washington State for reporting safety concerns; and prohibited employees in Oakland, Maine, from discussing internal misconduct investigations. According to the Communications Workers of America (CWA), T-Mobile illegally created a fake union to prevent a real one from taking root among the company's employees:The new constructed "fake union," the CWA alleges, claims to operate like a union, but given it's run by company executives obviously wouldn't encourage much of a serious challenge to company policies. According to complaints filed by the National Labor Relations Board last year, T-Mobile stopped employees in Albuquerque from discussing unions at work; fired a worker in Washington State for reporting safety concerns; and prohibited employees in Oakland, Maine, from discussing internal misconduct investigations.







News Jump California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news FCC Cited False Broadband Data Despite Warnings; ZTE, Huawei Replacement Cost Is $1.87B, But Only $1B Allocated; + more Cogeco Rejects Altice USA's Atlantic Broadband Bid; AT&T Is Astroturfing The FCC In Support Of Trump Attack; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 30 comments



Flyonthwall

@teksavvy.com 13 recommendations Flyonthwall Anon If employees are not selecting their own reps Then it's obviously not a union. Company can call it what they want. You'd have to be willingly stupid to think otherwise.

ptrowski

Got Helix?

Premium Member

join:2005-03-14

Woodstock, CT 12 recommendations ptrowski Premium Member Seems more like a focus group.... To me that does not seem like a fake union. BravoGolf

join:2006-12-30

Gary, IN 7 recommendations BravoGolf Member T Mobile fake union Sounds to me like a "company union", something that was banned in the US in 1935. tmc8080

join:2004-04-24

Brooklyn, NY 5 recommendations tmc8080 Member what it is and what it is not this sounds more like a "suggestion box" than a union... a union is RUN by the employees or 3rd parties and

MANAGEMENT can not be in control of the union (by definition) directly. there are usually no-retaliate laws associated with the grievance and collective bargaining process short of a lockout and violations of expired contracts... however all bets are off when a company's intention is to jettison a union workforce wholesale (lockout) in favor of a non-union one.



also, given that Tmobile is perpetually FOR SALE by DT.. it's highly unlikley a strong union would ever form in this workforce.

Authority

join:2000-03-29

Los Angeles, CA ·AT&T U-Verse

3 edits 3 recommendations Authority Member Total Bull! The CWA position seems to be that any attempt for a company to work better with their employees is a "fake Union".



T-Mobile appears to just be being proactive and doing everything they can to address employees concerns internally... which is EXACTLY what they SHOULD be doing. Unions need problems to justify their existence.



Good for you T-Mobile. jorcmg

join:2002-10-24

USA 3 recommendations jorcmg Member Cmon now Its not like they created some fake external organization and joined the AFL-CIO.