The ASL Interpreters Union has been organizing across both major video relay services since 2024.Mother Jones illustration; Photo courtesy of ASL Interpreters Union
On a quick break between calls, Kathleen’s co-worker asked her where she could learn more about unionization efforts at their company. Check Instagram, she replied. Kathleen’s manager quickly came over to reprimand her; two days later, she was fired.
Workplace crackdowns on union activity are a familiar story; most go unchecked. But Kathleen’s employer has drawn fire repeatedly from members of Congress.
Kathleen worked for ZP Better Together, one of the two major American video relay service providers. Together with Sorenson Communications—owned by private equity—they provide most video relay services for Deaf people making phone calls in the United States. ZP Better Together was private equity–owned until its 2025 acquisition by France’s Teleperformance SE, a public corporation that has acquired multiple other private equity–owned firms.
ZP Better Together and Sorenson are in the midst of a unionization effort for ASL interpreters; workers at both companies have alleged efforts to stop the union drive. (Teleperformance has also been under fire for allegedly subjecting Colombian workers to a traumatic work environment.)
“I was fired for misuse of company time, misuse of company technology, misuse of company resources and solicitation,” Kathleen told me. She had been with the company since July 2024 and believes her termination came in direct response to her unionization efforts. (ZP Better Together did not respond directly to questions regarding Kathleen’s employment and termination, but a spokesperson for the company said that it “respects the legal rights of its employees.”)
For Deaf people, video relay services are essential to connect to the world. Through the work of ASL interpreters on video relay services, Deaf people call doctors’ offices, speak to service providers, chat with friends, and complain to their elected officials. If the ASL interpreters serving them are burned out, then Deaf people suffer. The Federal Communications Commission is supposed to oversee video relay services, and the firms that provide them, under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But workers are arguing that the agency, particularly under Trump appointee and political hatchetman Brendan Carr, is not doing a good enough job.
Kathleen started to get more deeply involved in union organizing efforts in the fall of 2025, she said, because she was so frustrated by how she was treated as an employee with disabilities—not an unusual factor in union drives, but especially ironic for an organization that serves disabled people. Management at the firm didn’t allow her to wear her hearing aids for a month and a half, ostensibly because of concerns about their Bluetooth capabilities, until relenting when she submitted additional medical paperwork; she also faced difficulties getting accommodations for a spinal injury.
“If it was an addendum to the previous accommodation, they would throw out the previous paperwork and just go by the new one,” Kathleen told me, “which is how I ended up losing my [Americans with Disabilities Act] breaks at one point.”
The union drive at both firms kicked off in 2024 under the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) in an effort to win improved pay, better and more consistent hours, and more manageable working conditions—like time for breaks between calls or the involvement of certified Deaf interpreters. All of this, organizers told me, would help workers better serve Deaf people. Instead, ZP Better Together and Sorenson’s ASL interpreters say they’re dealing with anti-union attitudes, including the firing of organizers at one of the two providers.
“Teleperformance has launched a union-busting campaign against ASL interpreters at ZP Better Together. In the last three months, we have had four people terminated that we believe was for union activity,” OPEIU director of organizing Brandon Nessen said in a statement that urged Teleperformance to reinstate the workers. “These included highly experienced interpreters, and one of very few interpreters who is fluent in multiple Puerto Rican sign languages.”
The service the interpreters provide is critical enough—and scarce enough—that the union-busting allegations have received Congressional attention. On February 26, more than 70 House Democrats sent a letter to Teleperformance, to refrain from union-busting, warning the company that they would be paying close attention to its compliance. It wasn’t the first time: in 2025, 23 Democratic House reps also chided Teleperformance for infringing on workers’ rights.
“Companies that benefit substantially from federally administered programs and public funds have a heightened obligation to uphold strong labor standards,” the letter reads. “For a company like yours, now reliant on these programs for a significant portion of its US revenue, meeting that obligation requires earnest collaboration with labor unions.”
Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Teleperformance said in a statement that the firm rejects the allegations in the congressional letter.
“I love my job. You don’t go through 10 years of learning a language because you hate it,” Kathleen said. “The industry that I seem to have joined is exploitative. It shouldn’t be that way.”
