Workers Rally to Protect T-Mobile Call Center Jobs

T-Mobile workers, CWAers and labor activists rally at T-Mobile USA corporate headquarters in Bellevue, Wash. Below, activists carried banners with messages from workers at the seven call centers T-Mobile wants to close in June.

T-Mobile USA workers on Monday sent a loud, clear message to their CEO Philipp Humm: Keep good call center jobs in America and bring back the thousands you've shipped overseas.

More than 100 CWA members, along with other union and community supporters, delivered the 100,000-signature petition -- criticizing the company's decision to close seven US call centers and lay off 3,300 workers in June -- to T-Mobile headquarters in Bellevue, Wash. Protesters demanded that Humm return 6,000 overseas jobs, which have been moved to countries like Honduras and the Philippines, and ensure that workers can freely choose union representation without fear of retaliation. 

The rally included workers from call centers slated to close in Allentown, Pa., and Frisco, Texas.

"We want T-Mobile to know about our struggle," said Jamone Ross, a worker from Frisco. "We've all given a lot. A lot of us have given up weekends, so we can have decent schedules to have a small glimpse of our families during the week. I'm always saying, 'Hey I might not be able to go to church' or 'I can't go to that party Saturday night since I don't get off until midnight.' We all sacrifice a lot to maintain our jobs. The loyalty is very one sided."

Blake Poindexter, another worker from Frisco, was enraged by the company's abuse of taxpayer dollars. In four of the seven communities where call centers are slated to close, T-Mobile received a total of $14.2 million in taxpayer dollars from state and local economic development subsidies. Poindexter's community awarded the company $3.7 million alone.

"Our state gave T-Mobile millions of dollars to create jobs and what did they do in return? They took the money and now they're turning their backs on me, my co-workers and our whole community," he said. "T-Mobile is putting profit ahead of its workers and costing thousands of workers their jobs."

Watch a video of the Bellevue protest here.

CWA activists are now working to spotlight this abuse of taxpayer dollars and a new bipartisan bill that penalizes American companies for sending call center jobs overseas. They've launched an online ad campaign to urge support for the call center bill, which now has 110 House sponsors, and are working with elected officials to keep open all seven if the call centers set to close in Allentown; Frisco; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Brownsville, Texas; Thornton, Colo.; Redmond, Ore.; and Lenexa, Kan.

Check out all the action at www.weworkbettertogether.com and on Facebook.