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.
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.”
U.S. Rep. Condemns T-Mobile’s Anti-Union Campaign in NLRB Rule Hearing
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During yesterday’s Republican-dominated House Education and Workforce hearing on proposed rules changes by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), working men and women packed the hearing. Their message that workers’ right to join a union should be protected was repeated by the Democratic members of the committee in sharp questioning of the mostly anti-worker witnesses.
Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) read into the record the worker testimony from William Reitz, a T-Mobile USA technician who, along with other techs from Long Island, filed for union election in May. In response, T-Mobile has engaged in frivolous claims and delay tactics at the NLRB. T-Mobile has used the time it has gained by filing charges at the NLRB to harass and intimidate the workers–supposed to provide ”the facts” to the employees. (See video above)
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.
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.
World’s Workers Standing with U.S. Public Employees
The freedom to bargain for a better life through a union is recognized as a basic human right around the world. With politicians in the United States trying to take away that basic freedom from public employees, working people around the globe are responding with strong expressions of solidarity.
Several major international workers’ organizations and labor federations in more than 20 countries have spoken out against the abuse of power and assault on U.S. workers.
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.
