CWAers, Global Union Movement Encourages T-Mobile Women on International Women's Day

AFA-CWA Honors Flight Attendants for Advancing Women's Issues

CWA members attending the Telecommunications and Technologies Leadership Conference show their support March 8 for all T-Mobile’s workers.

Marking the 100th annual International Women's Day on Tuesday, CWA members and union supporters around the world offered encouraging words to more than 10,000 women who work at T-Mobile USA, which is fighting its workers every step of the way as they fight to organize a union.

"Women at T-Mobile are subject to daily fear, stress, and insecurity about their jobs," CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said. "Their performance targets are constantly changing, they can be fired at any time, their pay increases are minimal and any organizing efforts are quickly put down by management."

The e-mail campaign asked people to send online messages to T-Mobile women. Posts at Lowering the Bar for Us, the T-Mobile organizing website, included:

• "It is hard to form a union but it will be the best thing you ever did for yourselves. Hang tough," from Oregon.
• "I've been a T-Mobile customer for almost ten years. If T-Mobile does not bring a union to its workplace, I will change my carrier. I had no idea of T-Mobile's anti-union stance in their workplace," from New York.
• "Don't allow their fear tactics to break your spirit and resolve," from Ohio.

UNI Global Union is a big part of the international campaign to end the double standard at Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile, and support for T-Mobile USA women came from around the world. A T-Mobile USA worker posted this on the TU forum: "Who supports us in our fight to win what's right? The world does!"

The one-day campaign brought in several hundred new likes for the "lowering the bar" Facebook page.

One post read, "As a T-Mobile customer, I am disappointed. To not allow the women, many who have established the reputation T-Mobile has for great customer service, to provide a better future for themselves and their families is disturbing. I can't continue to support a company that participates in union-busting. I hope T-Mobile comes to their senses soon!"

AFA-CWA also celebrated International Women's Day, honoring its flight attendants and the strides made by all women in the last century.

"The Association of Flight Attendants has been on the forefront of advancing women's issues since our inception over 65 years ago," President Veda Shook said. "By challenging discriminatory policies based on gender, race, age, weight, pregnancy and marital status, AFA raised the bar for all flight attendants across the country. AFA was also the leader behind the repeals of the marriage and pregnancy bans, giving female flight attendants the opportunity for a career instead of losing their job when they started a family."