Five employees of T-Mobile are objecting publicly to T-Mobile CEO John Legere’s comments last week that AT&T and Verizon are “raping” wireless customers.
Legere apologized for the off-the-cuff comment last week, but in their post today on the site MomsRising.org, the five women say they aren’t buying it.
The post was written by T-Mobile employees Carolina Figueroa and Ashley Wells on behalf of themselves and their colleagues Victoria Singer, Candace Harrison and Amber Cornett. In their bios on the post, they identify themselves as union activists. The MomsRising site has partnered on various initiatives with the AFL-CIO, which is aiming to organize more T-Mobile employees.
Here’s an excerpt from the post.
Our CEO — the man who is representing us and our company — needs to know that he’s offended the hard-working women of T-Mobile. Being courteous to our customers is one of our highest priorities as customer service representatives. But what would happen if we ever swore on the phone? What would happen if we used the same rape metaphor in a conversation with a customer? That would certainly be our last day on the job. It’s not even a question. T-Mobile would escort us to the door — and rightfully so.
We don’t really think he’s sorry, despite his short apology on Twitter, about what he said. And that’s even more upsetting. It’s hard enough as it is to be women working the male-dominated world of tech. Our CEO’s language is just another reminder of how we don’t belong in the “boys club.”
We want respect when we go to work, and, unfortunately, we don’t always feel that we get it.
Read the full post here. We’ve contacted T-Mobile for comment.
Updated at 3:30 p.m. with additional details.
