Maybe they learned from AT&T's devil's pact with the CWA and IBEW.

A spokesman for Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile USA says employees view the company as a good place to work and have no interest in a union.

I always trust a company when it says its workers are happy.

Looked it up, T-Mobile has a neutral rating on Glassdoor but that site is heavily skewed towards the white collar end of business, not where CWA is likely trying to unionize.

I worked for the American branch of a French company. All of the employees in France got 6 weeks of vacation. We got two.

Diogenes: Maybe they learned from AT&T's devil's pact with the CWA and IBEW.

What lesson was that? AT&T was broke up by the government-not any Union. And since it's reforming like T-1000...I don't think it's a problem.

But yeah. Strange how Europe seems to be a bit more worker friendly then their American counterparts...they also have Universal Health Care...

OMG!!!! SOCIALISM!

Most call center workers would prefer to work from home, and it's technologically doable. The CWA is against this, not because it would be bad for workers, but because it would make it harder to unionize them.

/former (forced) member of the CWA.

Darth_Lukecash: What lesson was that? AT&T was broke up by the government-not any Union.

Many of AT&T's breakups and recombines were voluntary. I don't blame either the government or unions for that.

AT&T agreed to recognize the CWA and IBEW in perpetuity, and now they couldn't get rid of them if they wanted. It was quite interesting moving from HQ in NJ to an operational center in Florida (a right to work state). I used to develop systems that the data entry folks for Financial Services used. And since the clerks are occupational, they can enter the union. I was grieved constantly for every thing we did to the systems to improve throughput and performance. I simply don't see the value of the unions in a non-manufacturing setting. How much actual manufacturing is done by T-Mobile?

/i ramble
//need to get back to work

SushiJoe: I worked for the American branch of a French company. All of the employees in France got 6 weeks of vacation. We got two.

You could always go to work for the French branch of the French company.

SushiJoe: I worked for the American branch of a French company. All of the employees in France got 6 weeks of vacation. We got two.

You're lucky to even get that IN THIS ECONOMY.

Diogenes: Many of AT&T's breakups and recombines were voluntary. I don't blame either the government or unions for that.

It wasn't voluntary (new window).

Right to work states are evil..

Right To Work States...





Hey....wait a second


(Purple means voted more blue than Red in last 4 Presidential Elections....Pink means more Red than blue)


Anyways...I hear you that Unions can be a detriment. Personally I don't think they should be allowed to determine certain processes. What they need to do is protect jobs, salaries and safety of the workers. If a new process changes working conditions, then the Union should make sure that workers get retrained or placed elsewhere in the company.

what german muscle may look like

You know who ELSE brought in some German muscle?

Expect Obama and his chronies to help in anyway they can.

Nemo's Brother: Expect Obama and his chronies to help in anyway they can.

Broken record is broken.

As a union president, why *wouldn't* he be "interested" in roping in thousands of more dues-payers?

The following is a list of employees who are no longer needed:

Homer Simpson.

That is all.

/or something like that

Diogenes: Maybe they learned from AT&T's devil's pact with the CWA and IBEW.

Did they forget and look each other in the eyes? No wait, that's the devil's threesome.

just remember american freedom lovers.....


Unions: Bad

Crooked Companies and Crooked wall street: Good!


see, that wasn't hard.

now bend over and take what corporate america has coming for ya'.......

I am constantly astounded by the 1957 mentality of some of these union officials. The days of a lowly production worker with a high school diploma earning enough to afford a middle-class life are long gone. You can't bring them back any more than you can bring back the Aztecs or the dodo.

Today, there are skilled workers and unskilled workers. Skilled workers don't really need union representation, since they can bargain on their own expertise. And unskilled workers can't be helped by unions, since they're so interchangable. The only thing left is the public sector, which might use unions to enforce civil service protections.

So if people at T-Mobile are happy, the CWA can get bent, because they have nothing to offer. And if they aren't happy, again, the CWA can get bent, because they STILL have nothing to offer.

Actually, now that I think about it...

Fabric_Man: I am constantly astounded by the 1957 mentality of some of these union officials. The days of a lowly production worker with a high school diploma earning enough to afford a middle-class life are long gone. You can't bring them back any more than you can bring back the Aztecs or the dodo.

Today, there are skilled workers and unskilled workers. Skilled workers don't really need union representation, since they can bargain on their own expertise. And unskilled workers can't be helped by unions, since they're so interchangable. The only thing left is the public sector, which might use unions to enforce civil service protections.

So if people at T-Mobile are happy, the CWA can get bent, because they have nothing to offer. And if they aren't happy, again, the CWA can get bent, because they STILL have nothing to offer.

/FTFM

Don't let the NWA hear about this!

Fabric_Man: Skilled workers don't really need union representation, since they can bargain on their own expertise.

Don't they? An engineer is an engineer is an engineer. One guy with a BSME is, to many design shops, the same as the next.

I'd be very interested to see what might happen if the engimaneers at Boeing or Raytheon pushed a card check. You might see far less mandatory overtime and COLA cancellations.

As one of the people who helped usher in the CWA at AT&T post-SBC buyout, I'm really getting a ki...

Actually, scratch that. My efforts at AT&T were purely for revenge purposes. I had no interest in the CWA, but it was very satisfying sticking that thorn into the side of our horrible management.

AT&T Wireless would have died within three years had SBC or Verizon not bought the company (Verizon was two hours from signing the deal when SBC stepped in with billions in cash). It was a terrible tale of great company gone bad through corporate restructuring and cronyism. At the end of its days, coming to work was an absolute nightmare.

Campaigning for organization until we were successful on the vote to unionize was my best memory of working there. The second-best memory was the look on my boss' face when I told her I quit, a short couple months later.

/From Hell's heart, I stab at thee
//Suck it AT&T

This thread took far too long to Godwin.

Darth_Lukecash: Right to work states are evil..

And why is that?

soze: I'd be very interested to see what might happen if the engimaneers at Boeing or Raytheon pushed a card check. You might see far less mandatory overtime and COLA cancellations.

The software engineers at Boeing in Washington are unionized. I didn't hear anything positive about their experience. The software engineers in St. Louis just weren't interested when the union tried to organize us. There just wasn't anything to complain about here so the card check fell well short.

I worked for T-Mobile so I'm really...

OK, it was only PT, but it is a good company to work for. At the time they had good benefits & most of the positions were salary plus incentives. Had I been offered the opportunity to go FT I would've taken it in a heart beat.

soze: Fabric_Man: Skilled workers don't really need union representation, since they can bargain on their own expertise.

Don't they? An engineer is an engineer is an engineer. One guy with a BSME is, to many design shops, the same as the next.

I'd be very interested to see what might happen if the engimaneers at Boeing or Raytheon pushed a card check. You might see far less mandatory overtime and COLA cancellations.

People at Boeing and Raytheon have cool jobs by virtue of making things that fricking fly and/or explode. While biatching is a mandatory graduation requirement for any real BS in engineering, I'm betting most of them aren't seriously offended by overtime and think in terms of project completions. Overtime comes with the job.

And physical engineers are not software code-monkeys, lass. Once we've been there a few years our accumulated expertise effectively makes us a specialist, and the cost of training a new fellow is a significant capital investment most of the time. That's not irreplaceability, but it's a pretty good bargaining condition. Especially since we have the training to do the cost-benefit on our own job without much trouble.

Fabric_Man: I am constantly astounded by the 1957 mentality of some of these union officials.

Or the 70's.

Roja Herring: Don't let the NWA hear about this!

Well, Easy-E is dead, but I'd put Dre on the anti-union side (after all, he's a Doctor) and Flava Flav pro-union (why else would he wear a big-ass clock if he ain't hangin' out until quittin' time). Ice Cube could go either way.

Mmm... the Land of Chocolate...

poot_rootbeer: Mmm... the Land of Chocolate...

Came for the Simpsons reference...wondered why it took so long for it to be posted...

scandalrag: Roja Herring: Don't let the NWA hear about this!

Well, Easy-E is dead, but I'd put Dre on the anti-union side (after all, he's a Doctor) and Flava Flav pro-union (why else would he wear a big-ass clock if he ain't hangin' out until quittin' time). Ice Cube could go either way.

*golf clap*

Fabric_Man: You can't bring them back any more than you can bring back the Aztecs or the dodo.

No longer dead as a dodo (new window)

Harry_Seldon: Fabric_Man: You can't bring them back any more than you can bring back the Aztecs or the dodo.

No longer dead as a dodo (new window)

I initially read the author's name as Charlton Heston, and given the subject matter I thought it strangely appropriate for the article to be written by a zombie.

Fark Unions.

Ontos: Fark Unions.

We'd never come to an agreement.

All I know is that, thanks to the UNION I can't get more than 32 hours a week because then my employer would have to start giving me benefits and OH LOOK we found another dime-a-dozen employee that can keep his hours in check, buh-bye now.

Also, I get a 15-minute break in my 7-hour shift.

/don't actually know if the benefits thing is a union thing
//gets yelled at by actual union members for "working" on my break

Fabric_Man: Skilled workers don't really need union representation, since they can bargain on their own expertise.

They're so cute when they're naive.

Man, that's a statement based on nothing in the real world.

I'm one of maybe 500 people in a state of over 20 million that does what I do, and I'll tell you first hand that my bargaining power is practically non-existent as a single person. Only when in a group represented by someone chosen to negotiate in our best interest do we have any influence whatsoever. AT&Ts management seems to have no interest whatsoever in the long-term viability of the company; but would rather cut back everywhere to make a quick buck for shareholders at the expense of network reliability and internal expertise. The FCC would shiat bricks if they walked into one of AT&Ts offices and saw the alarms lit up like a street in the suburbs at Christmas.

Your statement only works when rational people are involved. When Greed walks in, the rational people are transformed.

All I know is what I see with their Chattanooga call center. The pay scale is above that of the other call centers in town (Convergys, Blue Cross and Unum) and the benefits are by far the best I've seen from any company in the area.

So when I showed my significant other (the T-Mobile employee) the article, she rolled her eyes.

I've been a T-mobile employee at a call center for four years now and I'd absolutely and utterly hate to see any sort of union nonsense roll in.

T-mobile does a good job of taking care of its employees. Hell - where else am I going to make $15/hr + bonuses, work three 10-hour shifts a week and still get full-time benefits, AND have an incredible phone discount?

Not to mention that it's a company where you can actually feel like you have a voice as an employee. Feedback gets listened to, and our management doesn't buy into those ridiculous management fad things that tend to sweep white-collar jobs.

Diogenes: Nemo's Brother: Expect Obama and his chronies to help in anyway they can.

Broken record is broken.

The truth is broken.

Linux_Yes: just remember american freedom lovers.....


Unions: Bad

Crooked Companies and Crooked wall street: Good!


see, that wasn't hard.

now bend over and take what corporate america has coming for ya'.......

2/10, but that's a good day for you.

Roja Herring: Don't let the NWA hear about this!

Well I'm Eazy-E, I got unions galore!
You may have a lot of unions but I got much more!
Wit my super duper group coming out to shoot,
Eazy-E, muthafarkas signin up da troops!