Rally in Bellevue T-Mobile plan to kill 3,300 U.S. jobs

UPDATE (Apr. 17) — Jeff Johnson, President of the Washington State Labor Council, has written a column about yesterday’s rally and why Tax Day would be a perfect day for T-Mobile to do the right thing and announce it will reverse course on its plan to kill more than 3,300 U.S. jobs. Check it out.

BELLEVUE — Last month, T-Mobile announced plans to close seven major call centers nationwide. The company wants to cut 3,300 American jobs in June on top of the hundreds already lost because of T-Mobile’s downsizing — plus 6,000 jobs lost because of outsourcing to the Philippines and Honduras.

The Communications Workers of America says that taxpayers are being left with a $14.2 million bill, the price of local and state subsidies T-Mobile received for opening four of the centers in exchange for promises of employment and economic development.

TAKE A STAND — On Monday, April 16, a Rally to Save T-Mobile Jobs will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. at the company’s corporate headquarters located here in Bellevue, WA, at 131 Ave. SE (at 36th St.) Participants will deliver the message: T-Mobile’s decision to cuts 3,300 Americans jobs is WRONG! Download the rally flier.

In the meantime, CLICK HERE to send a message to T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm and urge him to keep T-Mobile’s U.S. call centers open and bring back thousands of family-sustaining jobs. Your letter will be delivered — along with tens of thousands of others from across the nation — at the April 16 rally in Bellevue.

T-Mobile has broken promises to communities that gave tax subsidies in exchange for local jobs, broken promises to workers who need their jobs in this struggling economy, and has broken its promises to customers by delivering worse customer service. (T-Mobile has already dropped from first to fourth place in JD Powers’ customer service rankings among wireless carriers since it began offshoring.)

T-Mobile’s workers and customers are connected — and if this job-cutting plan goes through, both lose. Each lost T-Mobile job means another working family facing an uncertain future — and many customers facing uncertain service.

The call centers T-Mobile says it will close are in Allentown, Pa.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Frisco, Texas; Brownsville, Texas; Lenexa, Kan.; Thornton, Colo.; and Redmond, Ore.

Learn more at www.weworkbettertogether.org.