News

UNI’s German affiliate ver.di staged a protest against the anti-worker policies at T-Mobile USA during the International Broadcasting Fair (IFA) in Berlin on September 1. Activists shouted slogans, handed out materials at information stands and displayed banners, explaining the US situation and calling for support for the online petition. The campaign slogans “We Expect Better” and “Not everything is pink at Telekom” could be seen on numerous interactive screens in different exhibition halls.

The activists protested against the anti-union campaigns by T-Mobile USA and the very poor working conditions at the Deutsche Telekom subsidiary. Tomas Lenk, a ver.di shop steward, said that “it’s not ok that Telekom presents a nice facade here at IFA while our colleagues in the USA lack essential rights”. He added that T-Mobile employees are constantly confronted with harassment and extreme pressure from management to perform. Call center agents that fail to live up to the performance targets are often sent home and asked to write justification letters for the alleged underperformance, all the while being threatened with summarily dismissals.

Said Larry Cohen, President of Communications Workers of America (CWA) that represents T-Mobile workers in the USA: “Workers in the USA are subject to the arbitrary decisions of their superiors and to the hire and fire politics of the company without any protection. It becomes worse in the moment when they start to organise for a union. This tramples under foot all commitments to social responsibility by Deutsche Telekom management.”

The action drew massive attention from the IFA visitors, and some even reacted to the protest with spontaneous applause. The protest was also covered in online editions of several well-known German media outlets.