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The event opened with a presentation by Communication Workers of America President Larry Cohen, German union ver.di Executive Board Member Lothar Schröder and UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings on Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom’s mobile phone business T-Mobile has a huge presence in the US.



“We looked at the Jekyll and Hyde policies of Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile, where they recognize unions in Germany but do the opposite in the USA,” Jennings said.



The ground-breaking conference will be followed up by a series of follow-up activities in the next two weeks where the global strategy will be elaborated.



Secretary of Labour Hilda Solis addressed the gathering and was briefed on the concerns that unions have on Deutsche Telekom.



The meeting, which was a joint initiative on the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Global Unions and the US trade unions, also discussed organising initiatives in a range of household names including Saint-Gobain, Deutsche Post DHL, Ikea, Walmart and Securitas.



Jennings said the conference marks a breakthrough in global and national union cooperation.



While in Washington, ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow, Schröder and Jennings addressed the executive board of CWA and listened to moving statements by T-Mobile workers who, under the most trying of circumstances, are trying to bring union representation to the United States.



Photo (left to right): Jennings, Solis, Cohen