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The ILO Workers' delegation today heard from Joshua Coleman, a former call centre worker at T-Mobile in Wichita, Kansas, U.S.



Coleman said that thousands of American workers including himself are sacked every year because they want a union and Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile was one of the worst culprits.



Coleman said, "T-Mobile fired me after I gave an interview with a local television station where I welcomed my brothers and sisters from ver.di, the services union in Germany."



T-Mobile employed an arsenal of anti-worker stories including "threats, distortions, discipline, individual meetings with top executives", explained Coleman. He added that T-Mobile's union-busting activities are in stark contrast to AT&T where managers understand not to interfere with the unions.



Coleman told the ILO meeting that the anti-union culture was part of T-Mobile's corporate culture. "The company trains every call center worker with a presentation that calls the union a third party, holds mandatory meetings on the union and casually makes threats to trainees that they will lose their jobs if they are active in the union," he said.



The result he said was a climate of fear. "Workers learn very quickly that belonging to the union is dangerous for their jobs. They know that managers are watching them, that security guards record their license plates if they accept a flier from the union."



Coleman said that he and other activists would continue to fight for justice in the U.S. labour market. He concluded, "This is about U.S. companies in general and T-Mobile in particular bullying American workers".





Coleman also recounted his testimony at a separate meeting at the ILO bringing together international legal scholars and workers to discuss the issue of when employer "free speech" interferes with the right to form and join trade unions.



Lance Compa, Senior Lecturer in International & Comparative Labour Law from Cornell University presented his paper: "Freedom of expression and freedom of association: finding the right balance." The bottom line is that when the two are in competition freedom of association should take precedence and in keeping with the ILO rules employers do not have the right to interfere with the right to a union. Anything else is an abuse of free speech, a point made by Coleman.



"T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom have told political leaders and investors that all this is corporate free speech. I do not recognize this notion of freedom. Lower level managers cannot dissent. Workers cannot talk about the union during work time. Only designated managers can speak with one line – the union has no place at T-Mobile."



Coleman called on those present at the ILO to support their struggle.



Other panellists, including UNI Global Union Deputy General Secretary and Professor Keith Ewing from King's College London warned that those with an invested interest in the US labour model were promoting it around the world and it presented a serious threat to the global workforce



Read the ITUC backed report:"Freedom of expression and freedom of association: finding the right balance" in the Related Files session above.