T-Mobile Workers Defy Anti-Union Tactics, Vote for CWA
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A group of T-Mobile technicians in Hamden, Conn., are the first T-Mobile workers to win a voice at work with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) after yesterday’s vote in the 15-worker unit.
While T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom (DT) respects workers’ right to bargain collectively in Germany, T-Mobile’s U.S. management has fought workers’ organizing attempts with campaigns of delaying tactics and interference to intimidate workers. CWA Local 1298 President Bill Henderson says:
This vote made history, with T-Mobile workers fighting back to beat the odds and win the union voice they want. It showed the desire of people to have a union and an even playing field. Hopefully this will mean a new direction for all working people.
Global Unions File Complaint Against T-Mobile’s Parent
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A complaint filed today with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) describes how Deutsche Telekom has engaged in anti-union activity in the United States that violates the organization’s guidelines for multinational enterprises.
The complaint, filed by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the German union ver.di and the global union federation UNI Global Union, details the union-busting activity of Deutsche Telekom’s wholly owned subsidiary T-Mobile USA, which “has engaged in a pattern of conduct designed to undermine and frustrate employees’ efforts to choose union representation freely and to deny employees their rights to collective bargaining.”
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 »
IBM Global Alliance Formed to Improve Working Conditions, Gain Respect for Workers
Unions representing workers at IBM around the world are coming together to form a new IBM Global Union Alliance to faciliate cooperative efforts to increase union membership in the company and pursue global agreements to improve working conditions of IBM employees worldwide. They also will support workers facing anti-union actions by the company.
The unions formally created the alliance earlier this month at a joint meeting of the UNI Global Union (UNI) International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and the European Metalworkers Federation (EMF).
The Global Alliance also is planning a worldwide day of action June 14, just days before the 100th anniversary of IBM, which the company will celebrate on June 16. IBM unions worldwide will mark the anniversary with actions that promote the important role of unions in protecting workers and demand respect for IBM employees. More details will become available later, alliance officials say.
Global Postal Unions Fighting Spread of HIV
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In many countries, post offices are a central part of the community and often promote public health messages. Now, the postal unions worldwide have launched a campaign based in post offices to get out the word on preventing the spread of HIV.
UNI Global Unions (UNI), which represents workers in 900 unions worldwide, has joined with the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and UNAIDS to launch a global-awareness campaign on HIV in post offices around the world. Through a series of posters and handouts, post offices in participating countries will provide visitors and employees with important information about preventing HIV.
Global Unions Will Help Push Employee Free Choice
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Yesterday at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., union leaders from 45 different countries met with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and representatives of U.S. union organizations to discuss the union movement in the United States and the need to work together to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s an exciting chance for global cooperation in the fight to preserve workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Union leaders, representing countries from across the world—Australia, Turkey, Argentina, Italy, Ghana, Sweden and Indonesia, just to name a few—took part in a discussion of the critical issues facing America’s workers.
