News

American Rights at Work has just released a report exposing a systematic campaign against workers’ rights by T-Mobile USA and its parent company, the German telecommunications giant, Deutsche Telekom (DT).



UNI, along with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and ver.di from Germany, has been fighting for the protection of basic worker rights at DT for a number of years.



The report, “Lowering the Bar or Setting the Standard? Deutsche Telekom’s U.S. Labor Practices,” shows a clear disparity between the treatment of DT workers in Germany and in the United States. Comprehensive evidence details how T-Mobile USA has threatened workers who supported the union and offered incentives to workers to abandon their support of the union. T-Mobile USA's training and instructions for its managers on aggressive union avoidance strategies are revealed, as well as evidence of the company limiting and interfering in employees’ communications with the union.



In Germany, ver.di represents tens of thousands of DT workers but, in the United States, weak labour laws fail to properly enable workers to exercise their fundamental rights to unionise and to collectively bargain.



Based on Deutsche Telekom’s strong record of respecting workers’ rights in Europe, CWA supported the company's application to open up shop in the United States wireless market. Larry Cohen, President of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), says, “Looking back, we see no respect—just eight years of hostility toward workers and shameless disregard for their right to organize. It’s now time to hold DT and T-Mobile USA accountable.”



DT's opposition to worker rights in the United States has led to an unprecedented partnership between United States and German workers. The CWA and ver.di have joined forces to create a new union, known as TU, to collectively advance fair treatment and collective bargaining for all DT workers. The TU alliance was announced during a visit by a delegation of DT workers from Germany to the United States where German workers saw first-hand the ill treatment workers and their unions experience there.



“We believe that through this new union, we will contribute to better working conditions for workers in both countries,” says Lothar Schröder, member of the Federal Executive of ver.di. “Management must get used to the idea that we are representing the interests not only of German workers but of American workers as well. This is the right response to globalization.”



The TU alliance will build solidarity between workers on both sides of the Atlantic and increase the strength of UNI's campaign to win a global agreement with DT which would guarantee basic worker and union rights to all of its employees everywhere in the world. “This agreement would end the double standard now in place when it comes to workers’ rights,” said UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings.

The report, “Lowering the Bar or Setting the Standard? Deutsche Telekom’s U.S. Labor Practices,” by John Logan, Ph.D., Director of Labor Studies, San Francisco State University is available here.