On Tuesday, worried T-Mobile employees sent a letter Deutsche Telekom's CEO, Tim Hoettges, asking for job assurance and help.
T-Mobile Workers United, a union consisting of about 500 members, made a number of demands including job assurance, maintaining the size of paychecks and keeping management at bay so as to keep the union active. The union is backed by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the German union ver.di.
As per the letter, the demands were: "1. Secure our jobs without cuts to compensation. 2. Bring back outsourced jobs from overseas and in the USA; and 3. Respect our rights on the job by stopping management interference with our right to organize."
T-Mobile CEO John Legere has repeatedly said that the merger will actually lead to more job creation and not take away people's jobs, but the CWA claims that the merger will actually lead to the loss of around 30,000 jobs due to the closure of similar stores and redundant headquarters. Legere supported his claims by saying that T-Mobile will invest around $40 billion in the first three years after the merger for business expansion, building 5G infrastructure, customer care resources, and the retail footprint.
This merger is integral to the restoration of T-Mobile's health, especially given that the New York City authorities recently sued T-Mobile for "engaging in rampant sales abuses of customers for its lower-priced, prepaid wireless brand, Metro by T-Mobile," according to a report. The report also said that "it had identified more than 2,200 violations by T-Mobile, whose pervasive illegal activity spanned 56 Metro stores in all five boroughs, including authorized dealers and stores run by its MetroPCS NY unit."
Overall, only time will tell whether the merger will actually bring about more jobs or not. At the very least, it may eliminate inefficiencies that could bring costs down and allow for more hiring. If plans for expansion are actually to be implemented, it will take a lot of manpower in order for the 5G plans to come to fruition.