Statement by the Communications Workers of America on T-Mobile USA’s closing seven call centers and cutting thousands of jobs:

For release March 23, 2012

Washington, DC --T-Mobile USA’s decision to close seven call centers, employing 3,300 workers, is a bad one. It harms workers and communities, and in several locations, abuses taxpayers who provided funds to the company in exchange for employment and economic development.

Jobs could have been brought back from Asia and Honduras. Instead, T-Mobile USA did what CWA predicted would happen to a company without a path to a 4G-LTE network: it cut U.S. workers’ jobs.

Lothar Schröder, member of the ver.di board which represents more than 2 million workers in Germany, including T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom workers, criticized the decision. “In the United States, intelligent solutions are needed to persist and grow in the market in the long term. Unimaginative austerity policies including the closure of workplaces and the dismissal of thousands of employees have never been successful and never lead to lasting solutions.”

Klaus Barthel, a leading member of the German parliament, the Bundestag, accompanied the ver.di delegation last week to meet T-Mobile workers and learn about their efforts to organize in the US.  Over the course of a week, the delegation met with 25 T-Mobile workers in Washington, DC, Nashville, Tn and Frisco, TX (near Dallas). Klaus Barthels issued the following statement below. 

Workers' Rights should apply worldwide - Especially at T-Mobile USA!

Following this week's delegation to the U.S., Klaus Barthel, SPD parliamentary caucus spokesman for economic policy, as well as the world economy working group spokesman, made the following statement:

Globalization cannot look like this -- the Board of Directors of Deutsche Telekom and its main shareholder, the German Government, must end the anti-employee and anti-union practices at T-Mobile USA now! In the United States, T-Mobile USA, the 100%-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, acts as the spearhead of the anti-union movement.

By Lisa Künne

After a short night, our last day began with a meeting with employees from T-Mobile USA, from AT&T and with CWA organizers. It is very shocking to hear how T-Mobile USA is fighting these brave and engaged activists.

Around 11 am we had to interrupt the exchange for a meeting at the German embassy. At the embassy we met the head of the economic department, Peter Fischer. Ado explained to him what T-Mobile is doing in the United States to avoid unions. Since Peter Fischer had not been in the US for long, he didn’t know the situation of the unions very well. He did not know about this terrible kind of behaviour. He understood our concerns and promised to send a detailed report to Germany.

Deutsche Telekom has a problem the size of a Buick parked in its backyard. The failed $39 billion deal to sell its T-Mobile USA business to AT&T cost the latter a breakup fee of about $4 billion. But there was a silver lining for AT&T: The uncertainty of the drawn-out regulatory process took its toll on rival T-Mobile.

Photo: Dire outlook. By Derek Pedros.

The fallout for Deutsche Telekom could ultimately overwhelm the breakup fee it collected, with the $3 billion impairment of its U.S. assets, reported Thursday, potentially just the start. T-Mobile USA -- which makes up about a quarter of Deutsche Telekom's revenue -- is subscale versus market leaders Verizon Wireless and AT&T, and is struggling badly. It lost 1.65 million contract customers last year, leading revenue down 8%.

By Werner Schönau, Dieter Badel and Helmut Angerer

On the fifth day of our visit we said goodby to Klaus Barthel, member of the German parliament. Later in the day we went to the T-Mobile call center in Frisco. It was a very direct experience to learn about the anti-union behavior of T-Mobile and we ask all co-workers to express their solidarity with the struggle of our brothers and sisters in the USA.