Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s Parent, Fails to Live Up to Its Claims on Labor Rights
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Teresa Casertano in the AFL-CIO Organizing Department’s Global Campaigns section sends us this report.
T-Mobile USA workers were not surprised to learn that a recent report by the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD revealed that T-Mobile owner, Deutsche Telekom, had failed to meet its own claims about corporate social responsibility. Under the corporate social responsibility reporting standards set by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Deutsche Telekom gives itself an A+ rating, yet it provides little evidence to justify granting itself such superior marks.
The TUAC report details the company’s failure to report on global standards and finds that Deutsche Telekom highlighted its practices in its home country of Germany while failing to disclose its labor and human rights record in its non-German operations. The company claims 14 core labor and human rights indicators are “covered completely” in its GRI Report, while a fifteenth is “covered partly.” In fact, the TUAC report shows that only two are covered completely, seven are covered partly, and six are not covered at all. The TUAC report also finds that Deutsche Telekom disproportionately focuses its employee reporting on management employees while making little reference to its policies for tens of thousands of non-management employees. According to the report, only one of Deutsche Telekom’s 17 reported sustainability “Key Performance Indicators” relates to workers at all.
Join the Campaign to Gain a Voice for T-Mobile Workers
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While T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, respects workers’ right to bargain collectively in Germany, T-Mobile’s U.S. management has fought workers’ attempts to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) with campaigns of delaying tactics and interference to intimidate workers.
You can help T-Mobile employees gain a voice on the job by signing a petition here telling Deutsche Telekom we expect better from a corporation that asserts it’s committed to social justice. Join in by demanding that T-Mobile USA stop bullying workers and agree to end all interference in their workers’ decision to join CWA. The petition is sponsored by LabourStart in partnership with the global 20 million-member UNI Global Union.
Another Lawmaker Calls for T-Mobile to Respect Workers’ Rights
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After meeting with T-Mobile USA workers in his home state of Connecticut over the weekend, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D) sent a letter to Rene Obermann, CEO of T-Mobile’s parent Deutsche Telekom, urging the company to respect the rights of T-Mobile workers to make a decision about whether to unionize in an open, free and fair environment.
“The right of workers to unionize is guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act and is critical to a healthy workforce,” Blumenthal said in the letter.
Employees who wish to collectively bargain through a union should be able to do so without fear of discrimination or reprisal. I expect that T-Mobile management will cease all intimidation tactics and allow these technicians and all Connecticut T-Mobile employees to have the uninhibited opportunity to vote on union representation.
Global Labor Ramps Up Campaign to End T-Mobile’s Anti-Union Tactics
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Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile USA, boasts in its annual report on corporate responsibility that it is committed to the global labor standards established by the International Labor Organization (ILO), a branch of the United Nations. Except, it appears, when it comes to T-Mobile workers in the United States.
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) President Sharan Burrow says Deutsche Telekom—of which the German government is the dominant shareholder—is
actively and deliberately violating these very rights in its overseas operations.
T-Mobile workers throughout the U.S. are fighting to join a union—the Communications Workers of America (CWA)— but the company has hired union-busting attorneys and is conducting a classic anti-union campaign with mandatory captive audience meetings, delaying tactics and other intimidation measures, says UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings. UNI represents workers in telecoms unions around the world.
If these workers were in Germany, they would have become members of the union automatically but T-Mobile USA management has launched a brutal intimidation campaign to keep the union out of the workplace and to scare the workers out of fighting for their rights. Read the rest of this entry »
ITUC Survey: Colombia Still the Most Dangerous Place for Union Members
Colombia is still the deadliest country in the world for trade union members, according to the latest global Annual Survey of violation of trade union rights released yesterday by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
The survey, conducted across 143 countries, paints a picture of people fighting for greater economic rights and freedom to join a union, with many governments and corporations responding with repression, firings, violence, death threats and murder.
Last year, 90 trade union members were murdered, 49 in Colombia alone, according to the survey. Another 75 trade unionists received death threats. At least 2,500 were arrested and at least 5,000 were fired because of union activities.
The AFL-CIO vigorously opposes the proposed free trade agreement with Colombia so long as the “horrifying levels of labor and human rights violations in the country” continue.
German Workers Rally For T-Mobile USA Employees’ Rights
More than 500 workers from ver.di, the German telecommunications workers union, today descended on Deutsche Telekom’s global annual shareholders’ meeting in Cologne to demand the company ensure its American employees at T-Mobile USA the same rights enjoyed by its German workforce.
The workers formed a human chain around the meeting venue and released black balloons as a sign of mourning for their U.S. co-workers’ rights.
In Germany, Deutsche Telecom recognizes the union and has a collective bargaining agreement with workers. But at its American subsidiary, T-Mobile USA, management harasses workers who try to join the union, and has implemented a company-wide strategy of refusing to recognize the workers’ choice of a union and collective bargaining rights.
Global Unions Launch Campaign for Workers’ Rights at T-Mobile
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The global union movement has launched a major worldwide campaign to convince Deutsche Telekom to end its anti-union actions and allow employees at its T-Mobile USA subsidiary to join a union if they choose.
While Deutsche Telekom respects workers’ rights in its home country of Germany, T-Mobile workers in the United States and other countries face management campaigns of intimidation and harassment when they indicate they want to form a union and gain collective bargaining rights. Deutsche Telekom has repeatedly refused to stop the anti-union campaign being waged by T-Mobile USA.
“We expect better from Deutsche Telekom,” said International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary Sharan Burrow.
Global Unions Unite to Help Workers at Multinationals
The global union movement came together in Washington, D.C., last week to kick off a joint initiative to help workers at multinational companies join unions.
Members of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Council of Global Unions met with U.S. union leaders to discuss support for international organizing campaigns. Much of their help is directed at the United States, where workers’ rights now lag far behind other industrialized nations. They also met with senior officials of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The two-day meeting featured a presentation on Deutsche Telekom and subsidiary T-Mobile. While Deutsche Telekom respects workers’ rights in its home country of Germany, T-Mobile workers in the United States and other countries face management campaigns of intimidation and harassment because they want to form a union and gain collective bargaining rights.
Participants also discussed organizing initiatives at various companies, including Saint-Gobain, DHL, IKEA, Wal-Mart and Securitas.
Workers Say T-Mobile Makes Mockery of Corporate Responsibility
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Workers at T-Mobile USA say the company is making a mockery of its parent’s claims of corporate responsibility. Earlier this week, Deutsche Telekom (DT), the giant German telecom company that owns T-Mobile, patted itself on the back for its “leadership” on environmental matters. But workers point out that corporate social responsibility extends beyond going green, it includes treating workers fairly. And on that score, DT and T-Mobile fail miserably. Workers say DT should “be green. not mean.”
Last month, T-Mobile workers visited Germany and joined with their colleagues at ver.di, the German telecommunications workers union, to tell DT shareholders about the company’s double standard to deny its U.S. employees the freedom to join a union.
T-Mobile Workers Take Fight for Union to Shareholders
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T-Mobile USA employees and Communications Workers of America (CWA) Vice President Ed Mooney traveled to Cologne, Germany, last week and joined with their colleagues at ver.di, the German telecommunications workers union, to tell shareholders about the company’s double standard to deny its U.S. employees the freedom to join a union.
In many countries around the world, T-Mobile’s parent, Deutsche Telekom (DT), follows internationally recognized labor and human rights, including the freedom of association and the freedom to join a union. But not in the United States. Here, the German company allows management to harass and intimidate workers who want to join a union.
Some 50 ver.di members leafleted the entrances to DT’s annual shareholders meeting in Cologne with a flier that described T-Mobile’s “Wild West” tactics.
