Phelan on Sprint Workers

Regarding “The Ultimate Hang-Up for Phone Workers,” Column Left, Aug. 29:

I was one of the founders of a Dallas company, U.S. Telephone, Inc., which was a forerunner of the current Sprint. U.S. Tel, started in 1979, created a corporate environment which was almost unique in its embrace of innovative approaches to valuing employees and involving them at all levels of decision-making.

Unions were all but irrelevant in that corporate culture, because the company itself was committed to caring about how employees were treated, paid and valued. Were we perfect? Of course not. But we were damn good!

When U.S. Tel was bought out by United Telecom, which later merged it with GTE’s Sprint to create the current company, they systematically set about to destroy that corporate culture. Rather than understanding it, and its contribution to U.S. Tel’s unprecedented growth and loyalty from its employees, they made conscious choices to destroy that culture (as chronicled by Harvard Business School’s study of the merger) in order to confirm their own corporate culture as the “winner.”

It is frightening that Congress, seemingly at the beck and call of similar self-interest by business, is heading us back to the days when the “classes” were owners or workers, management or labor, the rich and everyone else. Without public policy that ensures fair treatment, the pursuit of profit will overshadow everything else and it will take us decades to reverse the resulting negative impact on society.

ANITA RUFUS

Palm Springs

*

* I am appalled at the treatment of Ana Hernandez and her co-workers, but I am not surprised. Unfortunately, in many companies, employees are intimidated, blamed for things that are not their fault, or worse.

I agree with Anna Hamilton Phelan when she states, “to maximize productivity, you must treat employees with dignity, ensure a good wage and guarantee a clean and safe working environment.”

Employers need to learn that treatment of employees can and will influence morale, productivity, customer service and eventually the company’s bottom line. It’s unfortunate that company executives have not learned these simple and important details.

EDEN ROSEN

Burbank