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CWA, German Telecom Union Create Alliance to Help T-Mobile Workers |
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To better fight the inequity between T-Mobile employees in the United States and those who work in Germany, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and ver.di, the German telecommunications workers union, announced today they are forming a special alliance to create TU—a union for T-Mobile workers.
CWA President Larry Cohen told a press conference in Washington, D.C., this morning unions must develop unique partnerships like this one to operate in a global economy dominated by multinational companies. TU will give T-Mobile USA employees, who do not have a union, greater strength to fight the company’s anti-worker practices.
Aldo Wilhelm, the ver.di employee representative on T-Mobile’s supervisory board in Germany, said the company operates differently in Europe than it does in the United States. T-Mobile’s parent, Deutsche Telekom, respects workers’ rights and collective bargaining in Europe, he said.
T-Mobile routinely uses illegal or unethical practices to thwart workers’ desire for a union, including mandatory anti-union meetings and one-on-one meetings between workers and supervisors, said Adrienne Eaton, a professor at Rutgers University, who presented a report on Deutsche Telekom’s labor practices in the United States.
Cohen said the U.S. standard of living is shrinking due in large part to the aggressive union-busting tactics of companies like T-Mobile. He said workers are tired of the two faces of T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom—the smiling face that gives workers real rights [in Europe] and the “club of intolerance” in the United States, where they fight against workers.
T-Mobile employees in the United States work in an atmosphere of fear and are afraid to let their union sentiments show. In fact, a T-Mobile USA worker appeared at the press conference in a disguise and only spoke by whispering to Cohen and others who relayed answers to questions. Worker X, as he was called, said the company monitors the actions of union supporters and often fires them. Worker X was afraid they would recognize his voice if he spoke aloud on the microphones.
In the new union, CWA will continue to help T-Mobile USA workers who want to join a union and educate union members on issues. But ver.di, which represents 70 percent of the Deutsche Telekom workers, will coordinate all bargaining with the company. Workers who join TU will be affiliated with both CWA and ver.di.
Cohen says the key to a better life for workers in the global economy is to increase collective bargaining. He points out that union density in the United States is the lowest among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), which includes most of the world’s top economies.
When you don’t have bargaining rights, it’s like chasing a train. Those who say they believe in a strong private sector should believe in collective bargaining. But they believe in the opposite—they really believe in greed.
It all boils down to whether we want a country that takes the high road or the low road in dealing with workers. The double standard of providing collective bargaining and workers’ rights in one country and not in another doesn’t work, he said.
We need to compete in the world economy with the same rights as other workers.
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Finally some cooperation on an international scale to combat capitalism. Now if this were only practiced on a broader scale and that union leadership did not support attacks against foreign born workers on U.S. soil but rather found about the problems in their country of origin and formed links there so as to help organize the unorganized here and around the world. What a concept since the imperialists have been doing it for over a century!