Union sets sights on T-Mobile

Red shirts for unity? Check. Whistles? Sure. A blow horn? You bet.

T-Mobile Springfield employees who took to lunch around noon May 23 were sure to see nearly 70 union supporters calling for fair wages in the hot Ozarks’ sun, just south of the telecommunications’ company property.

“T-Mobile is unfair. All we want is our fair share!” the attendees were prompted to shout at the start of the rally.

The crowd comprised local members of the Communications Workers of America, fellow union members from Service Employees International Union, politicians and a chapter president of German union Verdi, which represents workers of T-Mobile U.S. Inc.’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom AG.

Verdi Chapter President Thomas Konigshausen helped kick off the event by calling on T-Mobile workers to demand a living wage and better working conditions. He decried efforts by management to block the formation of the union through one-on-one interviews and said Verdi had a good working relationship with Deutsche Telekom.

“Why does Deutsche Telekom respect workers’ rights in Germany, but not in the United States?” Konigshausen asked the crowd, noting officials with his chapter were holding a similar rally in Germany for T-Mobile Springfield’s nearly 500 workers the same day. “This week, in discussions with workers, we found out about how management is trying to undermine their rights. We cannot and must not let this happen.”

The rally represents at least the second push for unionization among major Springfield employers this year. In late March, Mercy Hospital Springfield officials penned a letter to employees attempting to squash interest in representation via an unnamed health care union.

In the letter, administrators addressed concerns about low staffing levels, implying such issues might be the reason for union talks. While it is unclear whether Mercy Hospital Springfield has enough doctors and nurses to meet patient demand, officials say turnover isn’t an issue.

“Mercy Springfield saw a drop in turnover rates for registered nurses in both March and April, and our doctor turnover rates consistently rank at or below industry norms,” Mercy spokeswoman Sonya Kullmann said in an email.

Former local Mercy President Dr. Robert Steele recently pegged physician turnover at Mercy at less than 5 percent against industry averages between 6 and 7 percent.

“As for salaries, Mercy strives for market-based compensation, so wages may vary in different cities depending on several factors. This may cause pay to be slightly higher or lower when comparing individual facilities and different positions,” Kullman said, noting current Mercy numbers were not available by press time.

In late 2012, wages for bedside nurses within Mercy Central Communities’ 17-hospital footprint started at around $37,000, according to Springfield Business Journal archives. At that time, nurses had received two pay increases since 2008, but doctor pay had been stagnant during the same period. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, physicians and surgeons had a 2012 median pay of $187,200, or $90 per hour.

Janis Prewitt, a practicing employment law attorney and associate professor of management at Drury University, said the popularity of unions has declined in the United States since the mid-1960s largely due to laws designed to address worker’s concerns.

According to the BLS, union membership is down to roughly 11 percent of the U.S. workforce in 2013 after hovering in the 20 percent range in the ’60s to the early ’80s.

“During the civil rights movement, we had Title VII, so we couldn’t discriminate. Then, we had (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), which was to protect our safety. Then, there was the (Americans with Disabilities Act), so we couldn’t discriminate against (workers), or the public, with disabilities. And the latest is the Family and Medical Leave Act,” Prewitt said. “So, we don’t really need collective bargaining, and that’s the reason.”

Viet Nguyen, senior manager of corporate communications for T-Mobile, said he wasn’t aware of any one-on-one meetings with Springfield employees to discourage joining a union.

“We are not aware of any such conversations, but T-Mobile coaches do sometimes provide facts to our employees when employees want to discuss union issues,” Nguyen said in an email. “T-Mobile respects the rights of unions to exist and recognizes and respects employees’ rights to organize, or to refrain from organizing. We remain convinced that it is better for both T-Mobile employees and our business to maintain a direct working relationship between management and employees.”

Kullmann said Mercy also prefers to work directly with employees versus negotiating with a third party.

Nguyen declined to provide any wage information for the Springfield call center, which is in the middle of a hiring push.  

In April, T-Mobile announced it would hire 90 workers in Springfield in the second quarter, bringing the call center employee count to 500, including support staff and management.

In Springfield, CWA represents more than 600 AT&T workers through multiple chapters. Kendra Dame, president of CWA Local 6301, said her chapter – which has around 215 workers – would be the one to represent T-Mobile employees.

Jamie Mesey, the Local 6301 member who organized the rally, said about 5 percent of the T-Mobile employees have signed union authorization cards as of May 29, and the organization would need “at least 50 percent plus one” before CWA could represent workers. She’d like to see 60 to 70 percent sign cards.

Mesey said the union has a committee comprising a handful of T-Mobile workers, and according to those members, starting wages at the call center can be as low as $9 per hour with the average worker making around $12 per hour. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average worker in Greene County earned $708 per week during the second quarter of 2013, which equates to $17.70 per hour based on a 40-hour workweek.

Mesey said she has worked since last April to identify those committee members and secure signatures.

“People are often scared to speak with us,” she said, adding she has visited residences so that employees don’t have to sign authorization cards at work.

Prewitt said union work is, in itself, hard work, and that it can be a formidable task to establish representation. For example, she said unions have worked unsuccessfully for years to establish an agreement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. workers.

“As an employment lawyer, I’m not sure that the benefits are going to outweigh the amount of work required to establish a collective bargaining agreement. That’s a lot of work,” Prewitt said, speaking to efforts at T-Mobile. “I just don’t know how much more in wages those employees are going to get.”