Merger of AT&T and T-Mobile Good for Consumers, Workers
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The announcement over the weekend that AT&T is buying T-Mobile USA could benefit both consumers and employees. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the deal offers tens of thousands of T-Mobile USA employees the opportunity to benefit from the pro-worker policies of AT&T, the only unionized U.S. wireless company. Some 42,000 AT&T mobility employees are represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Trumka adds:
For T-Mobile USA workers who want a voice in their workplace, this acquisition can provide a fresh start with T-Mobile management.
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 Call on T-Mobile to Respect Workers’ Rights
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In many countries around the world, T-Mobile USA’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 this country. Instead, the German company allows management to harass and intimidate workers who want to join a union.
In a joint press conference last week, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), ver.di, the German telecommunications workers union, and UNI Global Union, said this double standard must end now. UNI, CWA and ver.di are pressing DT for a global agreement that would protect the fundamental labor rights of the company’s workers worldwide.
CWA President Larry Cohen told reporters:
T-Mobile USA…chooses to ally with the worst of U.S. managers who fight collective bargaining for employees in every imaginable way. These companies use the loopholes in current U.S. labor law that support and permit anti-union campaigning by management.
Report: T-Mobile Mistreats U.S. Employees
T-Mobile USA and its parent company, German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom (DT), have waged a systematic campaign to prevent employees from forming a union, according to a new report.
“Lowering the Bar or Setting the Standard? Deutsche Telekom’s U.S. Labor Practices,” released today by the American Rights at Work Education Fund, shows that although DT respects workers’ rights and cooperates closely with unions in Germany, it routinely mistreats workers in the United States and tries to thwart their freedom to form unions.
Says Kimberly Freeman Brown, executive director of American Rights at Work:
Respecting workers’ rights and needs benefits employees, their families, and a company’s bottom line. T-Mobile’s parent company became a leader in the telecom industry in Europe by working with their employees and proving that there is a better way to do business. It is inexcusable that our dysfunctional labor law system allowed T-Mobile USA to disregard its employees’ rights here in the United States.
