Federal Court Rules that T-Mobile Illegally Prevented CWA Member from Emailing Co-Workers

On July 23, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found that T-Mobile broke the law in 2015 when management of the Wichita, Kan., call center reprimanded a customer service representative after she sent a message through her work email account inviting coworkers to join the campaign to organize their union, T-Mobile Workers United (TU-CWA Local 6457).

Management responded by sending an email message to all workers at the call center claiming the worker’s email violated company policy because it was not business-related. However, T-Mobile had allowed workers to send non-business email messages in the past. An Administrative Law Judge concluded the company had discriminated against the worker and issued a decision against the company for unfair labor practices. The company appealed the decision to the National Labor Relations Board, setting in motion the filing of the subsequent appeals that culminated with the Circuit Court’s decision in favor of CWA last week.

Workers at T-Mobile have been organizing since 2009 despite T-Mobile’s refusal to recognize their union and the company’s ongoing anti-union campaign of intimidation and discrimination.