T-Mobile was recently handed a ruling to disband their T-Voice company controlled employee union in order to make way for T-Mobile Workers United, and CEO John Legere has taken to Twitter in his usual fashion to make it quite clear that the company will be appealing the ruling. Legere slammed the outcome of the court case as “ludicrous”, and said the function of T-Voice, listening to what employees have to say, is “imperative” to T-Mobile as a company. Legere went on to say that T-Voice and their mission jive with the overall values of the company, and that T-Mobile “will always defend them”.
For the time being, that Tweet from Legere is the closest thing that exists to an official statement from T-Mobile about the demise of T-Voice. There has thus far been no press release of any sort about the matter, and no mention of a set date for appeal, though Legere has made it clear that there will be one. T-Mobile even has yet to officially announce compliance with the judge’s recommendation. As of now, there is no requirement for T-Mobile to disband T-Voice, so until an official court order mandating T-Voice to be disbanded is handed down, it will continue to operate as usual. This means that operations will continue without any interruption if a successful appeal is made.
The ruling in question was handed down in no uncertain terms; it recommended the immediate dissolution of T-Voice, on the grounds that it was an illegal company-run organization. T-Mobile had been found to be openly hostile toward unions in the past, and had even come under fire for employee-unfriendly rules, such as policies that silenced victims of workplace harassment or forbid employees from discussing working conditions amongst themselves. On paper, T-Voice was supposed to be how the company put an end to such practices, but internal reports told a different tale. According to reports and employees, T-Voice did not seem to perform its intended function, instead running counter to T-Mobile Workers United, with some saying that it was a classic measure used against unions throughout history; a company-run alternative to traditional employee unions could take the wind out of unions’ sails, since they didn’t have any bargaining power without employees.