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Larry Cohen, President of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), spoke before 10,000 Deutsche Telekom workers on Tuesday bringing a message of solidarity from his union and workers at Deutsche Telekom’s US business T-Mobile USA.



The rally took place in front of the hotel in Düsseldorf where T-Mobile USA's parent company Deutsche Telekom and union ver.di are bargaining a new contract for 85,000 DT’s workers.



Ver.di is calling for a pay raise to keep up with the cost of living. On Monday, the fourth bargaining round started and a thousand workers went on strike for one day, as part of a program of rolling strikes. Delays and limitations were expected for customer services.



CWA President Larry Cohen spoke of CWA’s solidarity with the demands of German DT workers. “Your actions demonstrate the power of concerted action by thousands of employees. It is a very clear and straightforward message to management.”



In the USA, T-Mobile workers would be glad to have such a partnership with the management, but even this partnership can’t avoid disputes from time to time. Meanwhile, T-Mobile USA uses various instruments to prevent union recognition by election and hires union avoidance companies.



CWA, ver.di, UNI Global Union and the International Trade Union Confederation have formed the We Expect Better campaign to urge Deutsche Telekom to respect workers’ right to form a union and bargain collectively in the United States and in every country where it does business.



Cohen arrived in Germany on Friday to address the German Social Democratic Party’s national conference on workers' rights. He met with important politicians like Hannelore Kraft (Minister-President of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia) and Klaus Barthel (member of the German parliament), as well as ver.di president Frank Bsirske and the President of the German union confederation, DGB, Michael Sommer.



Click here to read Cohen's presentation.