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UNI Global Union today said that recent cooperation between German union ver.di and US union Communications Workers of America (CWA) as they push for union rights a German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom is a great example of the power of international solidarity for workers at multinationals.



UNI, CWA and ver.di are working together to fight for union rights at Deutsche Telekom’s US subsidiary, T-Mobile USA.

Last week workers from Germany joined their U.S. counterparts in an academic forum on labor practices in the U.S. and in meetings with government officials that spotlighted the double standard in T-Mobile's treatment of workers in Germany, where the company respects the right of workers to form a union, and the United States, where workers who want a union and bargaining rights face intimidation and worse.

UNI has been in talks with Deutsche Telekom to sign a global agreement that would guarantee basic worker and union rights to all of its employees everywhere in the world. This agreement would include a commitment from the company to end its double-standard when it comes to workers’ rights.

“We applaud the cooperation between our member unions ver.di and CWA,” said UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings. “The workers and the unions in Germany and the US are united and this solidarity will make our quest for a global agreement even stronger.”

CWA and ver.di - Germany's largest trade union, with 2.5 million members - established an alliance called TU a few years ago as a way of bringing workers together across the Atlantic to conduct joint organising and campaigning activities and to build a sense of camaraderie and solidarity amongst people who work for the same company but who experience vastly different working conditions.

"TU creates a unified union for T Mobile USA workers bringing the strength of ver.di but also the US presence of CWA,” said Larry Cohen, CWA President. “The global alliance we are building with all DT unions through UNI provides additional clout for all of us."

While 70 percent of Deutsche Telekom workers in Germany and elsewhere in Europe are ver.di members, in the US, T-Mobile has issued anti-union memoranda to its managers and provided them with training on keeping the union out, as well as harassing and intimidating staff who demonstrated an interest in union membership.



As UNI continues its dialogue with Deutsche Telekom, TU will aim to increase pressure on T-Mobile USA to allow its workers to organise by using the union's influence in Germany and the position of ver.di representatives on the Deutsche Telekom board of directors. Ver.di will represent T-Mobile USA workers and the Communications Workers of America in talks with Deutsche Telekom managers in Bonn to encourage collective bargaining in the USA.