Press Release: Current and Former T-Mobile Employees Meet With FCC Commissioners

Call Center Workers Recount History of Off Shoring, Ask FCC Commissioners To Support Conditions On Proposed Deal

WASHINGTON, DC – Adding human faces to the concern that a proposed merger between T-Mobile USA and Metro PCS would mean more American jobs sent overseas, current and former T-Mobile Call Center employees traveled to Washington D.C. today to meet with three Commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s Chief of Staff, and the Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor.

Included in the visit were current employees from Richmond, VA and Charleston, S.C, as well as a former employee from Frisco, TX. They met with FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel, Mignon Clyburn and Agit Pai, Chairman Genachowski’s Chief of Staff Zac Katz, and Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Seth Harris. They urged the FCC Commissioners to impose conditions on the proposed deal that would preserve and grow jobs in the United States, as well as bring back jobs from overseas.

“If the FCC is to remain true to its stated goal of growing jobs here at home, they should impose specific conditions protecting and enhancing T-Mobile jobs here in the United States,” said CWA Director of Telecommunications Policy Debbie Goldman. “T-Mobile and MetroPCS promise more than a billion dollars in merger “syngeries,” which normally means job cuts. Today, MetroPCS outsources its entire customer service and logistics operations, moving much of that overseas, and after T-Mobile’s failed attempt to merge with AT&T, T-Mobile USA closed seven U.S. call centers and moved work to the Philippines and Central America. That is certainly not growing jobs here in the United States.”

If approved, the transaction would combine T-Mobile, with 30,000 employees and 33.2 million customers with MetroPCS, which directly employs 3,700 to service about 9.3 million customers.

Late last year, the mayors of Charleston S.C. and Richmond, VA as well as Tampa, Florida wrote letters to the FCC in support of similar conditions on the deal.