Despite being largely considered one of the big mobile phone providers in the United States, T-Mobile has been struggling enough that they are looking to merge with another cellular provider in Metro PCS. While the company says that this merger will only help its bottom line in the long run, there are some employees who wonder whether they might be lost in the shuffle. In particular, employees at a contact center in Chattanooga, Tennessee are worried that the merge could make that contact center obsolete.
For its part, T-Mobile is still claiming that it understands just how important these kinds of call centers are to maintaining a successful business atmosphere. The company believes that if it is able to pull off the merger with Metro PCS it will actually strengthen its standing and make it even more likely that branches like that particular contact center will be able to stay healthy and operative.
A labor union in the area is not willing to just take T-Mobile at its word, saying that it wants regulators who are overseeing the potential deal to make the two companies promise that they are not going to relocate any contact center jobs outside the United States.
"These two companies planning to come together have significant histories of offshoring jobs out of the United States and we don't know what their plans are for the future," said Tony Daley, research economist for the Communications Workers of America (CWA). "We're encouraging these companies to make a commitment to keep their workforces and to develop the expertise of their current workers rather than ship these jobs overseas."
Technically, the CWA has not been able to officially organize at this particular call center, but they are still looking out for the best interests of employees there. Members of the CWA met with state legislators and city leaders in order to try and lobby them to write letters to the regulators who will oversee the potential merger. The more who are contacting these regulators, the better when it comes to getting them to look at the community before they let the deal go through.