This story has been updated to include a statement from T-Mobile USA in response to the protest.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) today issued a statement saying that “hundreds” of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters would march from Zuccotti Park in New York City to a nearby T-Mobile store to protest what the group calls “the cell phone carrier’s anti-worker and union-busting tactics.”
“For years, workers at T-Mobile, owned by the German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom, have struggled for the same workplace rights their colleagues in Germany already enjoy,” the CWA wrote in its statement. “But T-Mobile has waged a campaign of intimidation and fear to stop employees from exercising their basic rights.”
CWA has long contended that Deutsche Telekom’s employees in Germany are allowed to unionize, while T-Mobile USA has fought to discourage workers from unionizing.
The group said that CWA members and OWS demonstrators will march to T-Mobile in lower Manhattan and deliver the message that “T-Mobile workers are the 99 percent. They won’t stand for any more workplace intimidation.”
T-Mobile USA responded with a statement, calling today’s protest “misguided.” The carrier maintains that it “respects the rights of unions to exist and recognizes and respects our employees’ rights to organize or to refrain from organizing.”
“That said, 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. The vast majority of T-Mobile employees have chosen not to be represented by a union,” read the statement.